


Hotel Room Service

by MayGlenn



Series: No "I" in Threesome [4]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Aftercare, Anal Sex, Angst and Fluff and Smut, BDSM, Bathing/Washing, Belts, Bondage, Bottom Alex Manes, Car Accidents, Car Sex, Chastity Device, Come Swallowing, Consensual Kink, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dancing, Date Night, Discussion of Amputation, Dom/sub, Enthusiastic Consent, Erotic Electrostimulation, Everyone Needs Therapy But They're Working It Out Through Kink So, Explicit Consent, F/F, Finally the smut, Healing Sex, Kink Negotiation, Lots of Talking Before We Get to the Porn Sorry, M/M, Michael is the bisexual of plausible deniability between Alex and Maria, Multi, Oral Sex, Panic Attacks, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sex Toys, So much talking, Still not Max or Isobel friendly sorry, Texting, These are not related, Threesome, Weekend Away, immature humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:34:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 32,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24139705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayGlenn/pseuds/MayGlenn
Summary: It was a fresh notebook, Maria noticed. The first page was labeled ‘Rules,’ but that was crossed off, and below that were written a few alternatives, such as ‘Being Good’ and 'Contract.'“Just like you said about—love,” Alex continued, suddenly awkward. Rules, Alex understood. Feelings, not so much. “I think he doesn’t know how to be loved—”“We have to teach him,” Maria agreed.“Right!” Alex said, relieved. “And until then, I thought—we might give him the opportunity to feel like he’s earning it. You know, with clear expectations. Achievable goals… He likes that, right?”Maria nodded, peering down at some of the ideas Alex had written. She hummed and nodded while he blushed, and finally she couldn’t resist reaching into her purse and pulling out her own notebook,  turning to a page that she had clearly labeled, ‘How to Train Your Alien.’
Relationships: Maria DeLuca & Alex Manes, Maria DeLuca/Michael Guerin, Maria DeLuca/Michael Guerin/Alex Manes, Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Series: No "I" in Threesome [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1667581
Comments: 134
Kudos: 109





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Edit: I almost forgot big thanks to [Daughter of Elros](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaughterofElros), [Lori Lane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoriLane) and [Haloud](https://archiveofourown.org/users/haloud) for lots of help discussing where this could go next! Go read their fics to thank them!

“Can we talk?” Alex asked, catching Maria at the Pony after she had dropped Michael off at Sanders’ for work. 

“Yeah, I just need to do some inventory,” Maria said, unlocking the doors and letting Alex in after her. 

“I...may need more focus from you than that,” Alex said with a slight frown. 

It wasn’t really a frown, of course, just a look of concentration, but Maria was pretty sure only she and Liz knew that, and Liz had forgotten. 

So Maria smiled and shook her head. “Okay, then you’re helping me later.”

“Make Guerin help you. He loves being helpful,” Alex suggested, not even joking, though Maria laughed. She watched as Alex screwed himself up, grasping at the weak segue like a lifeline. “Anyway. That’s exactly what I want to talk to you about. Guerin.” 

Maria, psychic or just possessing a keen knowledge of her best friend, knew what was coming, but she kept her face impassive. He had been worrying at something all week, thinking through it, agonizing over it, but she knew better than to bring it up: Alex was the kind of person who didn’t really try to win if he wasn’t leading the charge. (It’s why, even beside the whole gay thing, they probably wouldn’t have been good partners without Guerin.)

In the past week, neither of them had fucked Michael Guerin, by unspoken agreement. And Michael, recovering from his spectacular downward spiral during which he had fallen back into old, ugly habits, including making out with a rando, hadn’t felt like he could ask. They had assured him, and continued to assure him, they were not breaking up with him, and had barely let him out of their sight to prove it. 

Of course, since his truck had been hollowed out by a grenade and buried in sand, he was beholden to them for rides anywhere he wanted to go. This made him easier to look after, actually, so they didn’t mind. 

“He does love being helpful,” Maria agreed. 

Alex pulled out a notebook. Because of course he had notes. Maria very carefully did not laugh at how neurotically organized her best friend was. 

“So I thought we could discuss some...well, _rules_ with him. He wants to be good, I think he just doesn’t know how. And he needs structure. Or wants it.” 

It was a fresh notebook, Maria noticed. The first page was labeled ‘Rules,’ but that was crossed off, and below that were written a few alternatives, such as ‘Being Good’ and 'Contract.' 

“Just like you said about—love,” Alex continued, suddenly awkward. _Rules_ , Alex understood. Feelings, not so much. “I think he doesn’t know how to be loved. I just want him to—well, I want him to _know_ , but—”

“But we have to teach him,” Maria agreed. 

“Right!” Alex said, relieved. “And until then, I thought—we might give him the opportunity to feel like he’s earning it. You know, with clear expectations. Achievable goals… He likes that, right?” 

Maria nodded, peering down at some of the ideas he had written. She hummed and nodded while he blushed, and finally she couldn’t resist reaching into her purse and pulling out her own notebook. It was busy and full of lots of lists and phone numbers and doodles and information and bullshit, but she turned to a page that she had clearly labeled, ‘How to Train Your Alien.’

Alex laughed, bleeding off that nervous energy from worrying that he had been way out in left field about this. “Oh, my God. You knew this was coming!” 

“Still psychic,” Maria said. 

Alex slammed his notebook shut dourly. “Well, fine, let me see—”

“Oh, come on. This is collaborative. Look, I just wrote down kink shit. What he wears and when. Which we know he likes, but, you’ve got, like...behavioral modifications on here. Cutting down on his drinking...that’s either gonna cost me a lot of money or _save_ me a lot.” Maria chuckled. “I think these are better. But might need some tweaking.” 

“We’ll run them by him, obviously. I just wanted to talk them over with you, first. Make sure I didn’t go too far off—”

“Yeah. I don’t want to mess up with him again, either,” Maria agreed. 

They fell silent, each reading each other’s pages. Maria grabbed a pencil and jotted a few notes in Alex’s notebook without asking, but Alex was a bit more respectful of her notebook, or else was taking notes in his head. 

“I like that you start with our responsibilities,” Alex pointed out. “Those aren’t kinky. Necessarily.” 

Maria raised an eyebrow, glancing at her list in front of Alex. “No, but they’re mostly about _money_. I’m worried he won’t like them.” 

“Of course he won’t like them,” Alex said, trying to sound bitter, but he just sighed and rubbed his face. “Do we really think he’ll feel more secure if we say we’ll love him and keep him forever _in writing_?”

“I think anything helps,” Maria said. “He’s a genius, but he can be so dumb, Alex. I mean, I know we shouldn’t blame him for not knowing things he was never taught, so don’t share that, but, it just needs to be said, _God_.” 

“I know.” 

“He makes _you_ look emotionally well-adjusted!” 

“...Thanks,” Alex said, rolling his eyes. 

Maria squeezed his arm. “Okay, so we start with our end of the bargain."

"Yeah. I have an old phone I’m going to put on my line for him. I would like to take that expense, if that’s okay with you,” Alex swallowed. 

Maria’s eyes grew big. “Man, if you can get him to _accept_ that…” 

“So far my plan is to threaten to set it on fire in front of him if he doesn’t take it?” Alex said.

Maria laughed, covering her mouth too late. “You’ll have to show him the bill every month. Point out all the money he’s _wasting_ by not using it. He hates waste.” 

“ _I_ hate waste,” Alex said with a grimace. “He might out-stubborn me. I’m open to better suggestions.” 

“Well, we might just wear him down. Maybe ask for things he won’t stand for, so these seem reasonable,” Maria said. “Like, I could suggest merging our finances, get him a debit card on a joint account.” 

It was Alex’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, _right_.”

Then he got it. “Oh, so then when we suggest that, _or_ he could just let us buy him clothes and food occasionally, because we want to, he’ll agree to the second one.”

“Worth a try. Unless he catches onto us and gets mad about the whole thing. Honestly I’d be glad for that, too, if he set a goddamned boundary.” 

Alex shook his head. “I think he’ll like this _because_ it’s got boundaries, for him as much as for us. It’s secure, it’s clear, it’s stable, he gets what he needs and gets to feel useful…” He glanced down at her list again. “Oh, yeah, you do have that old truck still, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I figure it’s not ‘charity’ he has to worry about accepting if I’m just letting him borrow it. And I like my mom's car so he wouldn't be leaving me without a ride, and he’s gonna have to fix it up. And I _do_ think—so, okay. Over here I had an idea about, ah, _punishment_ rules. Because he still hasn’t made anything up to us, technically, in his head, and that’s weighing on him.” 

Alex studied the different lists. “Okay, I see, so we start him here. With the more strict rules. Very _kinky_ rules. Yeah, I think he’ll be into that. Hang on, what’s this—?” 

Alex pointed to a shorter, vaguer list off to the corner.

“Oh.” Now it was Maria’s turn to blush. “I—I don’t know. I was just looking up how you deal with, ah, well, how you train a…pet that’s been abused.”

Alex waited for her to continue. 

“Not just because all men are animals,” she said, trying to joke. 

Alex rolled his eyes, and Maria caved, feeling herself flush:

“He’s got this…” Maria paused, taking a careful breath. It always hurt to think about this. “He’s got this...loneliness, I think it’s loneliness, inside him that manifests like a—a creature. When I read him. It’s the part of him that finally just _relaxes_ whenever we take him down.” 

Alex, really frowning this time, considered the list: focus, schedule, stability, reward-based training, no hitting or shouting… It was a good list. 

“Obviously I think _our_ velociraptor is a little too advanced for a clicker, no matter what Chris Pratt says…” Maria continued. “But we can’t hit him, anymore. Not even spanking, not even if he’s—you know, not even for little things, when he’s being a brat. Even though I think he really likes that...” 

Alex nodded, feeling like a colossal fuck-up about that. It didn’t help that Michael really seemed to like pain. But any kind of violence—’corporal punishment’ was how it was described on his list—had to be out of the question for anyone who had ever suffered abuse, even if it hadn’t been physical. He should have known that. Hell, he _did_ know that. 

“I know,” he said, voice hard. “I don’t think he’ll like that rule, but—well, if he decides pain is a _kink need_ , he can always ask for it. Keep it on his terms.”

“Yeah, I like that. I like making him ask for stuff, forcing him to communicate,” Maria said, sniffing. “Let’s talk about the fun stuff.” 

Alex huffed. “Yeah, I mean, I think—I think _that’s_ green all the way down.” He hummed. “You’re _really_ into that cock cage, aren’t you?” 

“So’s he. So are you,” Maria replied haughtily. “It’s a clear consequence of being unable to keep it in his pants. I think he’ll like it.” She paused. “Well, you know, not _like_ it...but, you know, for when he's being 'punished.' He's not supposed to like it.”

“You’re evil. I love you,” Alex chuckled. 

“I know,” Maria replied with a smile. 

“I already wanted him to ask permission to come, so I say we make that a standing rule.”

“Mm, yeah,” Maria said, pointing. “Put it in that column. Next to where it says he has to ask for it if he wants a spanking, or, or any pain. You know, start over, I think we need a new page.” 

“You have better handwriting, you should write this out.” 

“Okay. Three columns. What we provide and our rules. His rules. And, oh, what do we call this? The punishment column? We’ll need a better word.” 

“Michael may have a better word. I think—I hope he’ll like this, Maria.”

“Me, too. We’re gonna look like a couple of dumbasses with all this fetish gear if he takes one look at this and dumps _us_ , Alexander.” 

…

"Let us take you on a date," Maria asked, on a Thursday when Alex arrived at the bar with Michael in tow. 

Alex was using the cane, dealing with a lot of pain today, and Michael was practically falling all over himself to be helpful, to get the door and the chair, and Alex didn't try to stop him or even seem annoyed. 

"Thanks, Guerin," he whispered instead, when Michael actually pushed his chair in for him before sitting down next to him. 

Maria wasn't sure whether Alex was trying to soften him up or had actually realized the hypocrisy of asking to help but not allowing others to help him. Either way, it was probably good for both of them…

"Like, tomorrow. We can go to someplace nice in Albuquerque and get a booth alone and have a nice long romantic chat."

"Maybe get a hotel? Stay the night? Or the weekend, even."

"H-how much would that…?" Michael tried to ask how much something like that might cost, though he sensed he wasn't supposed to. 

"We're inviting you, and we're paying for it, so that's not your problem," Alex said firmly.

"Think you can handle that?” Maria asked, and then immediately sweetened the pot: “We could do other fun stuff, too. Go shopping or hiking or see the museums.” 

It was rough enough for her living in a town with only one museum, but how much more for Michael, who loved learning new things? 

“I think there’s a nuclear museum? Or air and space, or something…?”

"Don't think I don't know that you're going with the ‘kill him with kindness’ method of torture," Michael said, with an air of someone who was exhausted from daily raging against the machine and was ready to just take whatever it gave him. He glanced back and forth between them. "If you want to waste your money on me, who am I to try to stop you…"

"Not a waste," Maria said, and kissed his cheek. "Especially if you help me restock all the napkin holders."

"Oh, I see how it is, you're just trying to soften me up so you can _use_ me," Michael teased, pretending to sound offended, though he genuinely seemed happier at this caveat, and stood up. "I'll go do 'em now."

"He didn't say yes," Maria frowned, when he walked away.

"He didn’t say no. Maybe he's thinking about it," Alex suggested. "Are _we_ ready?"

"You said yourself he's going to help us figure out what he wants and needs," Maria assured him. "This is a consensually negotiated and co-written kink contract. So no, we're not ready, but we’re ready to bring him in on it. Or we can just take him on a fancy date and have a good time."

“I’ll get that phone set up today, then.”

“I’ll make hotel and dinner reservations. And I’ll take Michael home with me. Should I pack…?” 

“Everything. Just bring everything, just in case.”


	2. Chapter 2

“How fancy are we talking, DeLuca?” Michael whined as she watched him pack a bag. Her three (3) suitcases were already by the door, and Michael had already teased her for them, but he didn’t need to know that one bag was all fetish gear and the other (while admittedly filled with more shoes than she would possibly wear in a weekend) contained a few additional presents for Michael. “My options are holes and not-holes.” 

“So, sounds like you could use a sugar mama, after all,” Maria said innocently. She was stretched out on her bed kicking her feet playfully while Michael paced. He had two drawers in her bureau, and they were mostly filled with jeans and T-shirts and ratty flannels. He had one good pair of boots and one good jacket, and those would have to last him 

“DeLuca…”

“Shut up and check my closet door.” 

Michael turned around, eyes blazing. “ _ Maria _ , what did you do.” 

“Paid for it in cash and lost the receipt, if you must know. Hope it fits!” 

Michael made a face, though it wasn’t quite the face she expected. He looked a little miffed, and a little uncomfortable, too, but there was an odd play of relief, or wistfulness, across his features. Like he had only told her to stop because he didn’t think she would actually go through with it and didn’t want to get his hopes up. It made her suddenly wish she had a tux hanging on the back of her closet, or a whole wardrobe. 

Instead, he opened it to find a nice pair of charcoal slacks, a burnt orange shirt, and a subtly patterned vest. It was hanging in a garment bag that read Dillard’s. To Michael, it might as well have said Dolce.

“The vest was Alex’s idea. Well, he approved it. Wasn’t about to dress you in anything your boyfriend wouldn’t like.” 

“ _ That’s _ what you guys were doing in Clovis,” Michael huffed, and turned around. “I-I don’t know how to—”

“Seeing you in it will be payment enough,” Maria cut him off. 

Michael’s nostrils flared. “I was  _ going to say _ , I don’t know how to thank you.” 

“Oh, sorry. You just did! You’re welcome.” 

Michael turned back to the hangar while Maria fumbled for her phone to text Alex, _ He’s taking the clothes!! So far so good! _ “So what, I have to leave this hanging up? We’re going in a car, how does that work?” 

“Grab my dress behind it,” Maria said, and Michael took the second garment bag, this one an actual garment bag, opaque. “We’ll hang them all up in the back seat.”

“When do I get to see what you’re wearing?” Michael asked. 

Maria was saved by her phone. Alex, in the group chat, texting them that he was here. 

“When I’m wearing it,” she said, jumping off the bed and taking the garment bags from him before heading out the door. She installed the garment bags in Alex’s SUV, leaving Michael to get the heavier bags as she came back inside to check on her mother one last time and call the nurse who was supposed to visit twice a day. 

“How many shoes does she need for a three-day weekend?” Michael asked, as Maria’s bags filled the back of the Suburban utterly. He looked like he wanted to go for a kiss, but held himself back as Alex came around the car to help him. 

“I’m gay, not a woman,” Alex pointed out, and kissed Michael’s cheek just to watch him try not to melt into it. “The shoe thing is a mystery to me. Does not correlate with being into dick.”

Michael grinned, and then nodded at the clothes. 

“Thanks for the—she said you picked out the vest,” Michael said bashfully. “It’s—it looks nice. The whole thing. We going to some really swanky place tonight?” 

“Wouldn’t have got you the monkey suit if we weren’t,” Alex said. Michael noticed there was a third garment bag hanging up in the car, also an opaque mystery. “Hey, you mind driving for me? My leg is killing me and Maria gets  _ way  _ too distracted on long drives, it makes me crazy.” 

“Sure! Not a problem,” Michael said, glad to have a job. “Gonna have to move the seat back and mess with all your settings, though.” 

“Just don’t touch my radio presets. I’ll shave your head while you sleep.” 

Michael seemed amused by this threat. “Mm, nah, that would hurt you more than it would hurt me.”

Alex had no reply to that, but got himself settled in the back seat, where he could keep his leg propped up and keep an eye on the champagne in the coolers. 

…

The best thing about driving was that it kept Michael's focus. He couldn't zone out on the landscape, couldn't reach for and remember he was an idiot who broke his own phone in a temper tantrum—not that he'd have a data line to do anything with it, anyway—and he couldn't rummage in bags he was 100% sure they were hiding things for him in. He also couldn't get nervous about the things he already knew he wanted to bring up to them, and because he was driving, he wouldn't have to look directly at them when he did. He just had three hours to spit it out.

(Also, simply  _ driving _ was nice, since he'd been without his own mode of transportation since his truck had met a fiery death. It felt like he was getting the opportunity to pay back what they had been giving him all week, chauffeuring  _ them  _ around for a change. He felt useful, needed.)

"Okay, so our hotel is within walking distance of our restaurant, and near a lot of the museums," Alex said, reading off his phone. "We'll have to drive to the Nuclear Science museum if we want to go there, which we could do Sunday after we check out."

"Do the mall that day, too," Maria suggested. 

"Good old downtown Albuquerque. I know  _ that  _ area," Michael muttered with a slight roll of his eyes. 

"I think it's not quite the area you grew up in, Guerin," Alex said. "The hotel is a cutesy little bed and breakfast.” 

Maria winked. “I had to try a few places until I found one where the only option was a single King. Couldn’t make it look too obvious."

"You'll have to be good or we'll make you sleep on the fold out," Alex teased. 

"Ouch. Come on, I'm the bisexual of plausible deniability between you two. You  _ need  _ me—"

This, however, had them both cracking up, and Michael grinned, happy any time he could make them laugh. “And it’ll be good to get out of Roswell for a few days. I did  _ like  _ Albuquerque, mostly.”

Michael grew a little more serious, then, but if they thought he was about to open up about his childhood they were surprised by what he did open up about: “I, ah, I’m really grateful for—thanks for this. It’s gonna be good to, ah, start things out on the right foot, you know, again.”

It sounded like something was coming here, something big. Or maybe small, in the scheme of things, but for Guerin it was big. Maria desperately wanted to look at Alex, but she couldn’t do it without making it obvious. 

“We’re glad to do it, Guerin,” Maria said, and shifted so she was turned in her seat, one knee up so she could see both Alex and Michael. 

“We have fun doing this, too. You know that, right?” Alex checked, eyes flicking to Maria only because he knew Michael couldn’t see him, or that their gaze was mediated by a rearview mirror. “Think about it like you’re giving us a gift.” 

“Yeah, I’m gonna be a fucking  _ vision  _ in those clothes you bought me, so you’re definitely getting your money’s worth on that,” Michael joked, sort of unable to stop himself from hiding behind humor. “But really I more meant, ah, like, thanks for...try...ing...again. With me.” 

Michael’s grip was tight on the steering wheel as he stared ahead, avoiding eye contact with either of them. 

“Oh, Michael,” Maria said, pressing her lips together and reaching across to squeeze his shoulder. His whole body was tense, and so she rubbed his back gently. “We already promised you we’re not letting you run off on us again, sweetheart.” 

“Right, right, I know,” Michael said, and now it all came quick, trying to get it out before he lost his nerve. “I just know I still need to make up for fucking things up and I was hoping you guys would want to punish me. For that. Ah.” 

He paused, licked his lips, and swallowed. If Maria and Alex had something to say, they sat on it, letting him finish. 

“You know, I know we—we might have gone a little too hard too fast in the beginning but I really liked it. What we did. How we—but only if you guys—um. I guess I just want to get back to where I feel like I deserve that. Where I, ah. Deserve. You two.” 

Maria opened her mouth here, but Michael interrupted her, something like panic building up inside him (What if they said no? What if they were too scared they’d hurt him? What if they didn’t want to share him after all and he had to choose, what if?):

“No, I know you said I don’t have to deserve you. I  _ know _ that but I don’t know if I can handle things that way, DeLuca, okay? I can’t handle you two just—just being nice to me after—well, any time. But especially now. So I thought if we worked out some—ah—something where—”

“Pull over or take a breath, Guerin,” Alex said, from the back seat. 

“Sorry,” Michael said, and took a breath, and had to wipe his eyes, but oh shit that was exactly what he was talking about. Alex’s very casual but very stern order  _ was a reminder to breathe _ in and of itself. Maria squeezed the back of his neck and he untensed his shoulders automatically, as though she knew where the release button was in his neck. “Sorry, I’m—I’m good.”

“Insert joke about how you really  _ don’t  _ know when you’re good here,” Maria muttered pointedly. 

Michael grumbled at that. Then he took another deep breath. He  _ was  _ asking them to trust him to trust them…

“Fine.” The tires squealed as he pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. Michael barely put it into park before turning in the seat to glare at both of them. “Why won’t you two just make me  _ suffer _ ?” 

Alex lifted his hands in surrender and shifted himself so he could actually see Michael past the headrest. “Is that what you want?” 

Nerves and the always-angry chip on his shoulder were going to get Michael through the rest of this, looking them both in the face. 

“ _ Yeah _ ,” he barked, sounding way tougher than he felt about it. 

There was a pause, the inside of the car charged with tension for a brief moment before it released in Alex raising an eyebrow and Maria snorting into her hand. 

Michael huffed, grinning in fond annoyance. “Don’t laugh at me when I’m trying to open up.” 

“Just trying to make you suffer,” Alex suggested. 

“Fuck you, Manes.” 

Maria squeezed his arm. “What would you like that to look like, then?” 

“I don’t know. A contract? Something to control...” Michael swallowed, like he was beginning something he had actually thought about saying rather than just reacting off the cuff. “How do you guys feel about—okay, I know it’s not romantic, but I know you two fucking love rules because you’re—”

Michael paused: Alex was grinning at him like a shark, and Maria was literally covering her mouth to not laugh now. 

“—Weird. And I wouldn’t mind, like, knowing exactly what to do to make you both happy so I don’t have to try to guess all the time,’cause I’m not  _ good  _ at that, and I just want you guys to be happy,” he concluded, and then his eyes flashed. “What’s so goddamned funny?” 

“It’s just funny that we all came up with the same idea independently, Michael,” Maria said, and reached across the console to grab his face and kiss him. “So, yes. The answer’s yes. To all of that.”

“Oh.” Michael took another breath. He had to do this consciously, now, tell himself to breathe. “ _ Really _ ? You guys—”

“Guerin,” Alex said, with his stupid sexy  _ smug  _ voice that Michael both hated and loved, “We’ve already been thinking about something along these lines. Some rules, something for all of us to follow, so everyone knows how to make everyone happy.” 

Michael laughed, unable to decide if he was relieved or a little mad about it, though he ultimately decided he was absurdly grateful to learn that this was an arrangement they wanted, too. “Ha! Bullshit!” 

“We were hoping to discuss terms with you over a nice dinner, but maybe it’s good we established proof of concept, first,” Alex said. 

“You mean you guys really… You want…?” 

“Yes, Michael, we want. We wrote some ideas down. You can look at them whenever you like,” Maria said, gently tugging at the hairs at the back of his neck in a way that felt just so nice. “We want to keep you, Guerin, and we’re going to. But let us  _ woo  _ you, too.” 

Michael sucked in a breath through his nose, and felt like his breathing reset on its own. 

Now his stomach was doing a strange flip-flop, something like lust but...sweeter than that. Butterflies, maybe, he thought it was called. He didn’t think aliens could get those. 

“Uh. O-okay,” he said.

“So, let’s table the details until dinner tonight?” Alex said. “At least so you can drive.”

“Yeah!” Michael said, turning back towards the steering wheel, grateful for the direction. He peeled them out onto the highway, putting on extra speed to make up for lost time. 

“If you get pulled over, Guerin, I’m not having sex with you for a week,” Maria said. 

Michael winked at her. “I thought we said we weren’t talking about rules until dinner?” 

“Shut up and drive.” 

“Yes, ma’am.” 


	3. Chapter 3

Michael had never been in a place this nice. Not even Isobel’s house.

It was a mix of old, Victorian grandma kind of frill, and was also weirdly well-updated. The mattress felt brand new, the pillows felt firm and smelled nice, the bedside lamps had plugs for phones (and sex toys), the bathroom had two sinks (if different models) and a huge new jacuzzi tub. 

“I call dibs with Michael in the bath first,” Maria said immediately upon seeing the bathroom. 

Alex was staring at a painting on the wall, head cocked to the side. “They were not kidding about this being the honeymoon suite. They’ve got a Georgia O’Keefe vagina flower on the wall.” 

Michael followed his gaze, cocking his head the other direction. “I’m not sure I see it. And I’m pretty sure I look at vaginas more than you.” 

Alex turned to him, bemused. “Maybe we should put an art gallery on the to-see list tomorrow.” 

Michael shrugged, biting his lip to keep from grinning. “I dunno. I was still planning on trying to keep you two in bed with me all day tomorrow. Speaking of which—”

Michael wrestled his boots off and immediately relaxed onto the bed, which was firm, but cradled his spine in a way that felt delicious. He wasn’t exactly a connoisseur of mattresses, but he knew what felt good, and this was hands down the best bed he had ever slept in. “Oh.  _ Oh _ , you see how nice this is? We don’t need to go anywhere.” 

He kicked off his jeans and immediately crawled under the covers. As a tall guy, he was used to hanging over the edges of beds, but this one he couldn’t even reach the edges of. It was glorious. He stretched his limbs out, trying to look inviting. “We’ve got a few hours before dinner, right? Maybe I’ll just take a little nap. Be a waste without someone to cuddle up to. You could even tie me up, if that would be more tempting...”

“Oh, like you’d be doing us a favor, huh?” Alex said, rolling his eyes. 

Maria ran past him to jump on Michael directly, though she had to crawl across the huge bed to do it. She landed on him in a sort of WWF move that made him go “Oof!” and laugh. 

“Come on, Manes,” she said. “A little cat nap, and then I want to get in the shower before I get ready.” 

“Well. It does look comfortable,” Alex said, staring at the two of them. 

Maria patted Michael’s other side. “Bring supplies. The bed is huge.”

“We’ll rest here and try to make it to the other side tomorrow,” Michael added, giggling. 

“You guys aren’t even going to nap, are you?” Alex complained, laying down. 

“I’m already asleep,” Michael said, eyes closed but face stuck in a dorky grin, bright and unabashed. “I want this mattress. I’m stealing it. Floating it home.” 

Maria giggled, and even Alex chuckled where he tucked himself in on Michael’s either side. 

“You should take the whole bed,” Alex suggested. 

“We chose this one because the headboard’s got lots of opportunities for...attachments,” Maria added. 

“Mm.” Michael opened his eyes to check out the wrought iron headboard and footboard. He wanted to reach up and test its strength, but his arms were occupied by boyfriend and girlfriend, and he didn’t want to move. 

He dropped off to sleep without realizing he had done it, actually, and woke with a start, realizing he was in the bed alone, and the light had changed. 

“Whoa, baby, you okay?” Maria asked. She was doing something to her hair—using a straightener on it, maybe, but it was ending up curly. What did he know? 

He blinked up at her, a little embarrassed that he had startled physically like that, and sat up, rubbing his face. “Yeah. Fell asleep.” 

“Maybe you needed it, baby,” Maria said. 

Michael nodded, though he also shrugged. He hadn’t been sleeping well for a week, of course, but that was hardly her fault. They hadn’t let (or made) him sleep alone, but it still felt like the threat was always there, like he could (and eventually would) screw this up again. So instead of sleeping he’d spent the last week just watching and absorbing the feeling—the smells, the sounds, the  _ weight  _ of them—like he’d need something to remember later. 

He rubbed his face. _ Get it together, Guerin. They’re not letting you go _ .

Why didn’t he believe that? 

Maria had come over by then, crawling across the bed to kiss him. She was in her underwear and some kind of satiny slip, which, wow, he had only just noticed, what was wrong with him? She kissed him harder, demanding his focus, but made a loud buzzer noise when he lifted his hands like he was going to cup her face. 

“No touching. Hands down by your sides,” she said, and kissed him hard enough to push him back to the bed. 

Michael obeyed with a soft sigh and a smile, finding her orders as relaxing as always. 

“How much time do you need to get ready?” she asked. 

“Uh, fifteen minutes?” 

“Okay. You lie here until we say you can get up, okay?” Maria kissed him again, and slid her hand down his chest until she cupped his package, stroking him through his underwear and the blankets until he whined. “And don’t move,” she added, and stopped touching him, and crawled off the bed, making sure to give him a good view of her underwear disappearing into her ass cheeks as she did so.  _ Fuck _ . 

Michael whined, hips bucking up once. Lifting his head, he could see his erection obviously bulging under the old lady quilt, and he laughed and lay back. “You’re evil.” 

His bad mood and worries sure were gone, though. 

“Michael, can you—” Alex came into the bedroom, wiping his face of shaving cream, but stopped dead when he got a look at him. 

He turned and glared at Maria, but Maria feigned complete innocence. “Maybe he had a nice dream?” 

Michael had a feeling he wasn’t supposed to get groped and tell, so he just shrugged. “I haven’t moved.” 

That much was true. 

“Sit up.” Alex tossed Michael the notepad and pen from the hotel. “I was hoping you’d start writing down what you said you were thinking about in the car. Some Rules you’d like. For yourself and us. How much time do you need to get ready?”

“Fifteen minutes,” Maria answered, as Michael stared at the blank notepad. 

“Let’s give him twenty. I think you’re right,” Alex told Maria cryptically. Then he turned back to Michael. “We won’t look at anything you don’t want to show us, so go through a few different drafts, if you want.”

“I wrote down some embarrassing things at first,” Maria agreed. 

Michael nodded, pulling his knees up and adjusting himself as much as he could without touching himself, and started writing. Thinking about this in  _ this  _ kind of mood, with an obvious hard-on he wasn’t allowed to touch, meant that his first pass was all about sex and kink, and he crumpled that sheet up immediately. 

And then he uncrumpled it, copying some of them out onto a new sheet, and adding some more. It was a weird feeling, for someone who had never been well taken care of, to detail how he wanted to be taken care of. It was more difficult than he thought it would be, and his face was red with embarrassment even at some of these suggestions he knew he would never show them but even at some of them he knew he would. It was almost mortifying enough as a process to kill his erection, but then he also wrote down things like ‘blow you/eat you out for breakfast every day’ and just imagining living such a life made him maintain his erection. 

Alex’s alarm going off surprised him, and Michael glanced at the clock. Thirty minutes until their reservation, and a ten minute walk, that was him. 

“Almost done!” Maria called from the bathroom. 

“Guerin, you’re up,” Alex said, and when Michael looked up, his mouth dropped open. Alex was in all black, but more formal than goth, his shirt and vest in different but complementary subtle patterns, and his pants looked so expensive Michael felt afraid to touch them later. His hair was gelled and swept a little to the side, an updated version of the emo kid from 2008, and he was even wearing a little eyeliner. 

Michael stared, open-mouthed, and if Alex tried to maintain his cool at this, he failed, narrowing his eyes at Michael and grinning. “You like this?” 

Michael swallowed. 

“Holy shit, Alex,” was all he managed. 

Alex laughed and turned away. “I’m going to be designated walker because I don’t want to deal with the cane tonight, so you and Maria are free to get shlammered.” 

“Alex, you look—” Michael tried again, because he was going to learn to express himself, damn it, but then Maria exited the bathroom putting on some huge gorgeous earrings with a full face of makeup and her hair in an updo and a dress that was...wow. He’d seen her in formalwear before, but she’d looked sort of mussed and damsel-in-distressy by then. This number was all leather, matte-black, form-fitting and short, with a strappy, studded neckline that showed off enough cleavage that Michael was definitely going to be imagining putting his tongue there all night. “Holy shit, DeLuca.” 

“Don’t just stand there, you’ve got fifteen minutes to try to compete with this,” Maria said. “I hung your clothes up in there, and got you some new underwear I hope you’ll like. Your dopp kit is in there, too.” 

“My what?” 

“Your go-bag,” Alex said, then tried again. “Toiletries bag? I know you do know  _ how  _ to bathe.” 

“Ha.” Michael tossed the pen on the bedside table and took his list into the bathroom with him, not trusting them with it alone.

“He’s going to look like the sloppy third wheel,” Maria teased, as he waltzed past. 

“Oh, you’ll see,” Michael said, and shut the door behind him, and froze. There were new panties alright, silky and burnt orange like the vest, and on top of them rested the cock cage, gleaming. It was a suggestion, sure, or an offer, not an  _ order _ , but it made his mouth water, anyway, and his cock harden, unhelpfully. 

Yes, this was  _ exactly  _ what he wanted. 

“Everything okay in there?” 

Michael cleared his throat. “Yeah. Uh. Yeah. Definitely. Where’s the...there’s no lock?” 

“That’s just to help you not get an awkward boner in the middle of dinner. If you want it,” Alex said through the door. 

“No lock,” Maria confirmed. There was a pause, and then she added: “We can always negotiate that.” 

Michael looked at his list again. 

“Well, somebody hand me a pen, then,” he said, and started stripping to get into the shower, turning the water on as cold as he could stand it. 

He could hear them laughing on the other side of the door.


	4. Chapter 4

When Michael left the bathroom, his hair was still a bit damp, but he was pretty sure he looked good in the clothes Maria and Alex had bought for him. When he first put them on, he looked, he thought, like a bank manager on a night out on the town, but he had rolled up the sleeves to his forearms and unbuttoned the top two or three, maybe four buttons, and then he thought he looked pretty good. Still like himself, but cleaned up enough to be seen in public with the bombshells who were taking him to dinner. 

“What’re we waiting for?” he asked, and then stood with his arms out and a smile on his face. “Do I pass muster?” 

“Oh, shit,” Alex said, not hiding his appreciation as he got to his feet. 

“You didn’t shave,” Maria, who did hide her appreciation, said. 

“I thought you wanted to look like a dominatrix, not like a cougar, DeLuca. _Ouch_!” he cried when she pinched him. “Hey, where’d my boots go?” 

“I polished them for you—properly,” Alex said, handing them over. They were gleaming. 

“Holy shit, dude, I can see myself in these. You gotta teach me how to do that.”

“Well, it only takes about six weeks, and it’s called Basic Military Training…” Alex chuckled, grabbing the door, patting his pockets for room key and wallet. 

Maria tossed a coat over her shoulders and dropped a lipstick into her purse. Michael spotted a notebook in there, and patted the leaves of paper in his pocket to make sure they were still there, too. He struggled into his boots and joined them outside, letting Alex shut and check the door. 

“You look good, Guerin,” Maria mused, giving him a good eyefucking. “I’m glad you didn’t shave.” 

“I’m glad you’re incapable of wearing reasonable shoes,” Michael replied, offering her his arm. “Seriously, DeLuca, aren’t we walking somewhere?” 

“These are my big city shoes,” Maria huffed. “They’re wasted on Roswell. I’m fine. I may need your arm on the way home, though, depending on what we drink. I have different shoes for the mall and museums, don’t worry.” 

“I’m the one stuck massaging your feet if you mess ‘em up, is all I’m saying,” Michael grinned. 

“And aren’t you lucky?” 

“Okay, I think we just head up this, uh, majorly busy street, and then we’re in Old Town,” Alex said, looking from his phone up at the street signs, and then putting his phone away. “Look at those mountains! We should do some hiking or camping up here sometime.” 

“You can definitely do the camping without me,” Maria said, speaking loudly to be heard over the traffic. She walked carefully but precisely on her red stiletto heels, and Michael suddenly wished he hadn’t said they weren’t sensible because he had a desperate desire for her to step on his neck with them. 

(He just needed to get _laid_ …)

“Oh, I mean,” Alex corrected. “I don’t camp without an air mattress and running water unless I’m under orders. I’m talking strictly glamping.” 

“Oh! Like we could take Michael’s Airstream! That might be okay,” Maria said. 

Alex turned them off the main road into a sidestreet, and they shook their heads, realizing how loud they had been shouting to be heard over the traffic. Maybe there were some perks to living in a small town. 

“You remember any of this, Michael?” Alex asked. 

Michael waved a hand at everything. “Nah. I can give you a tour of some of the ghetto areas if you want. Hey, they do a _Breaking Bad_ tour! I bet I’d recognize places from that!” 

“You’d just recognize them from the show,” Maria said. “You were ten.” 

“I was also here at least once for science fair regionals,” Michael defended. “Not here-here, that was at the University. So, like, only eleven years ago.” 

“Okay, here’s the place,” Alex said, holding the door for Maria and waving Michael through after her. “We could try some—” Alex stopped abruptly, nearly running into Michael. “Are you going in? Did you forget something?” 

Maria was already ahead of them, talking to the hostess, giving her name for the reservation. But Michael wouldn’t budge from the double-doored foyer. 

“Pretty sure they don’t serve my kind in here,” Michael said, as he really got a look at the place, the white tablecloths, lines of cutlery, wait staff in pressed shirts. “Maybe I should wait outside.” 

Alex took Michael’s elbow firmly and guided him through, breathing hot on his neck. “Pretty sure you’re not a droid, Guerin. It’s okay.” 

“The _special_ is $48, Alex.” 

“So don’t get the special,” Alex said, finally able to get leverage enough force to move him through the door all the way. 

“Sorry,” Michael stammered, when he caught up to Maria and the hostess. “Thought I saw, uh...something.” 

Maria and Alex exchanged a look, but said nothing. 

“Here we are, this is a nice cozy spot," the hostess said, as she showed them a booth that was in a nice dim corner up against a wall. It was a half-moon booth, and there was no question as to where Michael would sit. 

“Thank you, this is perfect,” Maria said, pushing Michael into the booth first and following after him, while Alex flanked him around the other side. 

“We’ll only need _two_ menus, please, and a wine and cocktail list,” Alex told her with an easy smile. 

“Of course,” the hostess said, with an air of someone who wasn’t paid enough to judge, handing both menus to Alex, since he sounded like he was in charge. “I’ll be back with some waters, and Josie will be your server tonight.” 

“Thank you,” Maria said, picking up the drink menus. Without looking at either of them she said, “I assume this is what the fuss at the door was about?” 

“It’s fine. He’s doing fine,” Alex said, like saying it could make it happen. “He doesn’t need to see the menu.” 

“He’s _not_ doing fine,” Michael whispered, face red, staring at the candle lighting the center of the table. He had never so much as been inside an establishment this fine. Even, like, for Isobel’s wedding, the reception was catered from a place like this, not held inside one. “Y-you guys don’t have to do this to impress me, okay? Consider me impressed.” 

Maria laid a hand on the back of Michael’s neck, and Alex laid one heavily on his knee. 

“We don’t have to, but we’re going to,” Alex said, voice calm but firm. “That’s our decision. It’s not going to be more than we can spend. It’s not going to be more than we _want_ to spend on you. So don’t even worry about it.” 

Michael breathed harshly through his nose once, and then nodded. His fists that had been clenched on the table he relaxed and dropped into his lap. “Okay. Really? You _really—_ ” 

“How did you _not_ know Alex is a major foodie?” Maria said, easing the tension. “You’re going to have to get used to at least one expensive or weird restaurant per trip, always. And I’m going to try at least three of these cocktails. This is practically a business expense for me.” 

“Yes, Michael, really,” Alex said, and surprised everyone by leaning in to kiss Michael’s cheek, even in public, or, in semi-public. “Be good, okay? You look good.” 

Michael nodded, relaxing a bit further as a grin spread unbidden across his face. 

“It wasn’t a big deal when I bought you a $50 scotch,” Alex pointed out. “And scotch is gross.” 

“I don’t know, that was...roleplaying,” Michael said, fussing, caught-out in a double standard and mad about it. He dropped the smile. “And—and I _did_ feel terrible about that, later.” 

“Well, think about this as...exposure therapy,” Maria said. “Because we’re just getting started.” 

“Oh, my God,” Michael said, wilting in the booth a little. 

“This is us wooing you, Michael. We want to spoil you and treat you right,” Maria said, taking a notebook out of her purse and setting it in front of Michael. 

“We want to show you that you can trust us,” Alex whispered. “Trust us to take care of you in all ways. Trust that we love you.” 

Michael almost laughed. Trust? Care? _Love_? Those were probably the hardest things in the world for Michael to feel, or work on, or let happen to him. As for treating him ‘right,’ that had to be a joke. After what he had pulled? Treating him ‘right,’ as in, ‘correctly,’ would mean kicking him to the curb. 

Everyone turned and straightened as the waitress approached. 

Michael lifted the journal and hugged it to his chest to shield it from the waitress’ eyes. He let Maria and Alex do the smalltalk with the weirdly personable waitress in a long apron and trousers, feeling like this was a totally foreign interaction, nothing like ordering from Liz at the Crashdown or anywhere else he had ever been. They talked a little bit about drinks—and the special, which sounded mostly overwhelming even aside from how much it cost—but she promised to return so they could have some time to decide. All the while Michael ran the words trust, and care, and love, even ‘treating him right,’ over in his head, like a mantra, or else trying them on for size, interrogating their meanings, thinking about how they fit him, or Maria and Alex, or how they would actually function, trying to make himself feel like he deserved them. 

“So, how about it?” Maria asked, when the waitress had left without them ordering anything. 

“I mean, of course I _trust_ you. I just don’t think you should have to…” Micheal sighed, and let go of whatever he had been about to say, or even think. 

“And you can call it any time, Guerin. We didn’t order yet, so we can leave, if this is too much.” 

“Plenty of places to eat in Albuquerque, we can go spend our money somewhere else…” 

“I’m not going to tell you how to spend your money,” Michael said, releasing the notebook and an easy little breath from his chest. “I trust you. I-if you really don’t _mind…_ ” 

Maria grabbed Michael’s chin and turned him to look at her so she could speak softly. “I would pay way more than the cost of half your dinner tonight to go to dinner with any guy who lets me _dress_ him, much less under his clothes—”

“ _DeLuca_ ,” Michael laughed, face going red, but the laughter shook him out of his funk.

Alex was grinning, equally besotted. “If we seem like we’re going hard on you with this, it’s because we know your worth, and we’re done taking it for granted.” 

“Ha,” Michael said, and sat back, trying to regain some of his cool after nearly panicking over someone buying him dinner. As much as it infuriated him, he knew seeing the menu and how much everything cost was going to freak him out, and he blushed helplessly. “I’ll just have the cheapest thing on the menu.” 

“How about,” Maria said slowly, smiling a little devilishly, “you straighten up and let me enjoy how handsome you look, for starters.” 

Michael rolled his eyes a little, but was still blushing. He sat up, unhunching his shoulders, and gave her a smoldering stare, because he couldn’t do anything seriously. 

Alex blinked, almost surprised. “I forget how _tall_ you are, Guerin. You look good,” he said, and turned back to the menu. 

Michael preened a little internally. He wasn’t used to Alex or Maria telling him he looked good all that often.

“Good boy,” Maria agreed, and, oh, yeah, Michael definitely liked hearing that. “So what if we talk you through the menu, you tell us what sounds good, and we order for you?”

Michael huffed, but that sounded weirdly comfortable. 

“Is this like a kink thing?” Michael squeezed the notebook. “Is this on your list?” 

Maria glanced at Alex, and Alex cleared his throat. “We talked about making sure you ate well as being one of our responsibilities. Something we _wanted_ to put on our list. If you’re okay giving us that.” 

Maria held up a hand. “Not like food control, unless you wanted it to go there. Just making sure you’re taken care of. It doesn’t have to go beyond tonight.”

Michael mulled it over briefly. The words _food control_ flashed him back to his stints hiding food as a kid when food wasn’t a stable part of his life, and that freaked him out a little, even though he knew Alex and Maria would never make or probably even _let_ him go hungry. 

“Maybe just tonight. We could try that.” He swallowed. “You guys don’t need to worry about me eating, I never forget to eat. I know where to get food if I’m—it’s okay.” 

Maria and Alex both laid a hand on his knee to stop him, like they both sensed his growing agitation. 

“You can’t stop us from worrying about you, Guerin,” Alex said. 

“It might be easier if you just got used to indulging us,” Maria suggested. 

Michael huffed. He was tired of fighting this, but tired in a good way, feeling like it had been a good bout, even though he also felt like he had lost. “Okay, okay. You guys can order for me. You know I’ll eat anything.” 

Then something magical happened: Maria and Alex just clicked together, talking excitedly all of a sudden about food and drinks, saying words he didn’t know the meanings of like they were speaking a foreign language. 

“How do you feel about sharing? We get three entrees and we each get to try three different dishes?” Alex asked, and Michael took a moment to realize he was talking to _him_ , lulled as he had been by Maria and Alex’s conversation floating over him. 

“Oh. Yeah, that’s fine? I won’t actually bite if you try to take my food away,” Michael replied. 

Maybe the joke fell a little flat, or he delivered it flatly, after where his mind had been, because Maria felt the need to lighten the mood a little more: “Shame. I love it when you bite.” 

Michael rolled his eyes, but he found himself pulled inexorably back down to earth with a smile on his face. And now Maria and Alex focused on him: 

“Okay. I’m going to have the salmon,” Alex said, “and Maria’s thinking about the pork normande or the tenderloin au poivre.” 

“Sure, whatever that means,” Michael laughed a little helplessly. 

“Just pork or beef, baby,” Maria said. “With fancy stuff. With that in mind, are you feeling like pork? Steak? Or...there’s chicken?” 

“Chicken’s good,” Michael said. Chicken was usually cheaper.

“Hm,” Alex said, scanning the menu, “how do you feel about bacon?” 

“Man, who doesn’t love bacon?” Michael asked. 

“Because the Henry IV sounds incredible,” Alex said. 

Maria moaned. “Oh, yeah, I want to try that. Do you like artichokes, Michael?” 

Michael shrugged. He’d had artichoke _dip_ , and he guessed he’d had them on pizza before. “Yeah, I think so.” 

“I bet that’s gonna be really impressive. You’re okay with beef?” 

“Guys, seriously, I’ll eat anything,” Michael said, and bit his tongue on the _Just don’t go crazy_ he wanted to add.

They were interrupted by the waitress again, and this time Alex and Maria ordered drinks, without consulting Michael. Cocktails for everyone: these at least Michael vaguely knew his way around, and could follow, though he didn’t say anything except “Sure,” to Maria’s query if he’d try something called a negroni. 

Giving up that control to them, letting them order food for him, did feel vaguely kinky, but something they could get away with in polite society. It still made his insides roil with lust, so maybe this was working. 

“That’s not something with a little umbrella is it?” Michael asked when the waitress had gone again. 

“No, but now I know your masculinity feels threatened by little umbrellas we’re definitely getting you one next time,” Alex replied, smiling. 

“And when she comes back we can order the escargot. I can’t believe you’re making me try that, Alex!” 

“It’s sauteed in butter and garlic and served in a mushroom cap, DeLuca, anything tastes good like that,” Alex teased her. 

“What’s…” Michael began, but then someone, not their server, set a basket full of like four different kinds of bread at the center of their table. Michael sat up. “Did we order that?” 

“It’s complementary, Michael,” Maria assured him, rubbing his thigh. “Like chips and salsa.” 

Michael thought about what he’d have done with the knowledge of the existence of restaurants with _free bread_ in high school, when food sometimes was scarce. He supposed because they waited until you ordered something it’d be a pretty tough scam to pull on the regular, though, like he’d tried to do with a few of the Mexican food restaurants and their chips and salsa policies… “Okay. And what’s escargot?” 

“Escargot is snails,” Alex said. “It’s a French delicacy. I had it overseas a few times.”

“That must be where you got your weirdo taste for seafood,” Maria said, still looking over the menu, like she still couldn’t decide. “What kind of New Mexican likes seafood?” 

“Oh, you’ll like the salmon, too, when you try it,” Alex teased her, and she made a little face. 

Michael relaxed again. 

“You want to keep looking at the book, Michael?” Maria asked, “Or eat some bread?” 

She was poised handing him the basket. There was butter in there, not in little foil packets but in a silver dish, looking soft enough to spread. 

“Uh. Bread. Definitely—but should we save it? Like, does this go with our meals?” 

“They’ll bring more if we run out,” Alex said. “And if you fill up on bread like a rookie you can take your meal back to the hotel. I think we’ve got a minifridge.” 

Michael nodded, dumbly, appreciating the explanation. _Trust_. He trusted them to guide him through this, make him feel less like an alien. “Okay. I’ll try not to do that.” 

Except the bread was fucking _fantastic_ , so this was easier said than done. Michael hadn’t thought he cared that much about food, but maybe he just hadn’t experienced _good_ food that much. If he wasn’t careful, these two were going to turn him into a foodie, too, desperate for luxuries he couldn’t afford. 

By the time the cocktails arrived, Michael was already beginning to relax, enough that he pushed his bread plate out of the way to look at Maria’s notebook. The negroni came in a whiskey glass with a huge ice cube, and though it was sweet, it was a little bitter, too, and orangey, and he liked it. Alex’s cocktail was way too sweet even for him, but Maria’s was nice and tart, and he kept trying to steal more sips of it until she switched him cocktails. 

Hers had a little umbrella in it. 

“So let’s start with _our_ rules,” Alex said, flipping one page over. “You know, if it helps you think about it like a contract, this is our end—even though, I mean, of course that’s not what this _is—_ ”

“Like some _Fifty Shades_ thing?” Michael asked, grinning. He was feeling better about this. 

“How have you seen _that_ movie?” Maria cried. 

Michael shrugged. “I haven’t. Just hear Isobel and Liz arguing about it way too much. And I’m, like, on the internet. I know what it’s _about_.” 

“Well,” Maria said, squeezing his thigh. “That could be what this is, if we want it to be. We were more thinking guidelines or expectations, and we might agree to revise these at any point. But if it would feel more secure, or even just more fun, we can totally make it more serious, something we all sign…” 

Michael shrugged, finally letting himself scan the page, face coloring at the thought of signing an actual kink contract with these two, giving up his rights and shit. It was fun in a weird fantasy kind of way, though not something he knew (trusted) they would be into in reality any more than he actually would. 

Then he looked up from the notebook in alarm, and they watched the color leave his face. “Okay, hang on. This isn’t like _Fifty Shades_ at all… _no_ punishments? Y-you guys...” 

Maria sighed, obviously disappointed. “We should _not_ have started with our list, Alex.” 

“Maria, it’s fine. Michael, calm down—” Alex tried. 

“You can’t give me your car, Maria,” Michael protested.

“Not give,” Maria snapped at him. “Read, Michael. Borrow. And it needs a lot of work, anyway, so you’d be doing me a favor.” 

“Maria,” Alex said, his voice vaguely warning. “Michael…” 

“Jesus—you want to give me a _phone_?!” Michael hissed, all the way back to panicking again. This was not something he could do. This was not something he wanted. 

“Michael—” Maria began, blinking wetly, like his upset was hurting her. She stopped herself from saying anything to make matters worse, but slid out of the booth. “I can’t deal with you if you’re going to read what you think it says instead of what it actually says.”

With that, Maria excused herself to go to the bathroom, leaving Michael feeling like an idiot. Page one and he’d already screwed up. 

Alex pushed the notebook closed in his slack fingers. Michael let him, staring at the bread on the table, entertaining a new crazy fantasy of stuffing his pockets with bread and just hitchhiking back to Roswell and his lonely Airstream before he screwed up any more of this weekend away. “Maybe we should talk about this more in private, I’m sorry, Michael. I thought the public setting would keep us a little more focused and a little more PG, but that was my fault. I don’t mean to upset you.” 

Michael shook his head, not daring to look at Alex. “I didn’t mean to upset Maria…” 

“She’s mad at me, mostly, I think,” Alex said. “And I owe her an apology. But right now I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t be,” Michael said. “You should go check on Maria. Please.” 

Alex ignored him. “I know it takes a lot out of you to accept—anything. And Maria’s very giving, you know. That’s how she shows love. I know you do, too. You’re both givers. And I know how hard it is for you to accept anything—gifts, help, love. Would it be better to think about it as you _giving_ the gift of letting her give something to you?”

Michael shrugged. “Maybe. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay, Michael,” Alex said. Michael didn’t understand how he sounded so calm. “Do you want to get some fresh air?” 

“M-maybe?” Michael said, and finally looked at Alex, wondering if he was being dismissed or given an out, and wondering how those were different. But Alex didn’t look like he actually wanted Michael to leave… “How’re you sure I’m not gonna take off again?”

“Because if you want someone to trust you, you have to trust them, first,” Alex said, and reached into his pocket. He set an iPhone of some newish model down on the table, like he was setting a mouse in front of a tiger. “I’d like you to take this with you. It’s bought and paid for, refurbished, added to my line and plan. It cost me very little, in the scheme of things, if that helps. And it cost me way less in money than it would cost me in anxiety you being without one. My number’s in there, and so’s Maria’s—and Max’s and Isobel’s.”

Michael felt a little sick. “Alex, I can’t—”

“Michael, please listen because I’m not saying it again. You’d be making _me happy_ by taking it and using it. I can’t un-pay for it. If you want to get mad and freak out and break it, go dump it in the trash, then that’s money I’ve just lost and it was worth it to find that out now. So. Up to you. Take a walk if you need to, and please come back when you’re ready.” 

Michael slid out of the booth. He took the phone, but his hand also hovered over Maria’s notebook. 

“Can I…” 

Alex’s face was vaguely uncomfortable. “We’d really like to contextualize some of them in person. But if you want to, sure.” 

Michael took the notebook. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what do you think should be/is in the notebook??


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Roswell Day!

Outside, Michael couldn’t see the stars for the light pollution, but knowing they were there made him feel a little better, more like he could breathe. And out here he felt more than a little bit stupid. 

It was instinctive for him to push away help and love, to not trust it, for all that he wanted that more than anything in the world. It’s what he always wanted and never got from Max and Isobel. He’d have slept at their feet if they’d wanted him to. Been there to protect them, always, to serve them, to love them, if they’d only love and look after him, too. But they had each other, they didn’t need him, so they always let him push them away. To be fair, he pulled a knife on them when they were kids, so he didn’t really blame them. But that was why he stared at their numbers in his phone, this phone Alex had given him, he couldn’t call it  _ his  _ yet, and didn’t call either of them. 

What it made him realize was that there were two people who wanted to give that to him, and they were sitting alone in a restaurant, maybe—hopefully—together, but more likely one of them was crying in the bathroom and the other was sitting alone at a table that was going to have way too much food on it for even the biggest foodie in a few minutes.

Michael wiped a hand across his eyes and leaned against a random brick wall. He maybe ought to be worried stopping here, but what did he have to steal? That was literally his entire problem. 

Using the light of his phone, he read the notebook. Even the crossed out stuff. Nothing they wrote was worse than what he had thought about, and some of the things they had crossed out he wouldn’t mind bringing back. He wished he had a pen, to take notes, but here, alone, he could have his own reactions to things and think about things and—oh, yeah, a few of them definitely made his cock harden a little, because he was just a man, er, alien, after all. 

This was, all of it, everything he wanted, he knew. From the rough punishment he craved (and had to  _ ask  _ them for now) to being grounded like the brat he was to being  _ cared for _ because for some reason they wanted to. It was just getting himself to accept it, much less feel like he deserved it, that was the hard part. 

Back inside, he felt immediately better to see that Maria had returned to the booth and their food had arrived, and they were both eating. His own dish remained untouched. 

“Sorry,” he said, as he returned. “I’m sorry, I just—” 

“It’s okay, don’t apologize,” Maria said, practically throwing herself out of the booth to let him slide back in. “I should apologize, I got overwhelmed—” 

Michael surprised her by hugging her and kissing her neck. “Accept the apology, DeLuca. You got overwhelmed because of me, and I’m sorry.” 

She relaxed, and hugged him back. “Okay. I forgive you. I love you.” 

Michael smiled, released her, and slid into the booth. Alex was next, getting a kiss instead of a hug, no matter who saw. “I’m sorry to you, too. And thank you.” 

“You’re...welcome and I forgive you?” Alex said, a little bewildered. The phone and the notebook were still both with Michael, bulging out of his vest pockets, so that was a good sign. 

“I’m kinda hungry. Can we talk after?” 

“Absolutely,” Maria agreed. 

Which was when Michael actually laughed, looking down at his plate, which looked like a work of art. “Holy shit, what did you guys order for me?”

“This was called the Henry IV. I don’t know why, exactly,” Alex chuckled. “But it looks amazing. You should get a picture before you dig in, we didn’t touch it.” 

The artichoke leaves were arranged in a circle around the steak, which Michael felt was an appropriate place of honor for the steak. The steak was also wrapped in bacon— _ also  _ an appropriate honor. He laughed and took a picture, and then hummed thoughtfully. “Can, ah, can we get a selfie?” 

“Oh, nice,  _ after  _ I’ve eaten off my lipstick,” Maria complained. 

“How else can we even compete with you?” Michael asked, and took several pictures of all of them together, badly, until Maria took his phone from him and worked the selfie angle properly, despite having the shortest arms. 

“A good way to christen my new phone,” Michael said quietly, looking at the pictures with a smile on his face, and that was all he said about it. 

Alex and Maria shared a look, because this was progress. 

...

The food was delicious, and they didn’t drink as much as they had planned in favor of eating their fill. They loved the escargot. Even Michael could turn down an offer of more bread when the waitress came by again and refilled their waters and asked about dessert. 

Alex calculated how bloated they were all already feeling and combined it with all the talking they had yet to do tonight, and decided a little dessert wasn’t going to make a difference about whether sex was on the table tonight (it really wasn’t). So he ordered a creme brulee for himself, and Maria ordered a chocolate mousse on the condition that Michael would split it with her, and Michael groaned and slouched in the seat to show his distended belly, but agreed. 

“You know I’m never gonna say no to chocolate, DeLuca,” Michael whined. 

“Yeah, you  _ better  _ not,” Maria said with a wink, which had Alex and Michael roaring with laughter. 

They had the giggles all the way through dessert, where Maria accidentally dropped her dessert spoon, and when Michael gallantly offered her his, she got to alternate taking bites and feeding him, which was something they both enjoyed way too much. 

When they staggered back to the hotel room they were drunk on laughter, and groaning from having indulged too much. Maria flopped out on the bed, but Michael hung out near the wastebasket by the desk. 

“You know we aliens have weak stomachs, please go easy on me,” Michael groaned. 

“If you puke that up I am going to tell you how much it cost,” Alex said with a wink, tossing his wallet and keys on the desk. 

They’d even gotten through that part of the evening without any issues, Alex taking the check, not even looking at it, and dropping two credit cards into the black book: one his, one Maria’s. “Just down the middle,” he had said to the waitress with a smile, and she came back with two black books for each of them. Michael, dutifully, had not tried to offer anything, pretty sure that just leaving a fair tip would clean him out, and did not try to ask, or even look as they signed their names and added tip (Maria with cash, Alex on his card). All he’d said, in a small voice, was, “Thanks.” 

And now Michael was groaning on the floor, trying to get his shoes off but he couldn’t bend over without unbuttoning his pants first. “I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much in my life.”

“Do we need to go for a walk?” Alex asked. “Just let me know before I take off my prosthesis.” 

“No, I’m fine,” Michael said, feeling better once he had stripped off his nice clothes and stood there in a white undershirt and his orange silk panties. 

It was only because he looked so good that Alex sighed and hung up the trousers and vest for him properly. “I suppose it’s too much to ask you to get these dry cleaned?” 

“I’ll take care of it,” Maria said. 

“I can get clothes dry cleaned!” Michael protested. “I’m not an animal!” 

“Could have fooled me, tiger,” Maria said, and rolled over onto her stomach. “Unzip me, please, and unhook my bra. I’m just going to get into my jammies.” 

When Michael unzipped her, Maria padded into the bathroom daintily and closed the door behind her. “After I take an unholy shit in here!” 

Michael laughed: that was more his kind of humor. 

“Turn on the fan!” Alex complained. “We still have to sleep here.” 

She did, and Michael and Alex were left in the quiet together, the white noise making the room feel more private.

“That was nice,” Michael said. “I had a good time. I—I still think I’m the worst person you could spend your money on, but I’m not going to tell you how to spend it.” 

“That’s a fine compromise,” Alex said levelly. “Thanks for taking the phone.” 

Michael nodded. “Guess the exposure therapy is working.” 

Alex huffed. “Good.” Then he leaned back, considering Michael. “You know what money can’t buy me? Some help dealing with my leg.” 

“I mean, you could get a sexy live-in nurse, probably,” Michael said, rolling to his feet. “Will I do?” 

“Well, you got the sexy part down,” Alex said with a smile. 

Michael’s shoulders straightened, his eyes going from lazy to focused in an instant. All he ever  _ wanted  _ was to serve. 

“If you want to help, how about you start with grabbing my crutch from my bag? The one in the closet?” Alex ventured. 

“Got it,” Michael said, and while he was gone, Alex stood and pulled his slacks down to his knees. 

“Thanks,” Alex said, taking the crutch from Michael’s hand and resting it against the side of the chair. “Do you mind helping me with my shoes and pants? Only if bending over isn’t going to make you barf.” 

“I’m fine,” Michael insisted, and he sounded fine, and he looked fine, down on his knees at Alex’s feet—or, foot, at any rate. “Do, uh, I take the shoes off the leg?” 

Alex smiled. “Yeah, call me old fashioned, but I still like to keep pairs of shoes together.” 

“Smartass.” Michael slid the shoes under the bed, and tossed the socks into the pile he was forming for his dirty laundry. Next Michael slid the slacks off Alex’s leg and prosthetic, respectively, but these he hung up and slid back into the garment bag. “Right?”

“Yeah, I want to keep those hung up, thanks,” Alex said, and Michael knelt in front of him. Michael had seen him do this often enough he pretty much knew how this worked, but it was Alex who hesitated. He didn’t let anyone touch his prosthetic except, well, medical professionals, because he had to. He hadn’t really thought that this would be a big step for him. He swallowed. 

“Okay?” Michael checked, hands hovering over Alex’s leg. 

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Alex said. “I’m just, uh, developing a new appreciation for feeling weird when someone wants to do a nice thing for me.”

“Yeah, nice try, but you  _ can  _ do this, so it’s not the same,” Michael said, sounding vaguely bitter but mostly resigned. “I appreciate you letting me help, though.”

Alex sighed, giving that point to Guerin. “Okay. There’s a button you gotta flick to release the vacuum seal. You see it, right?—Yeah. And you want to take off the liner next. It’s gonna be kinda gross.”

“How gross?” 

“Like, sweaty?”

“No grosser than what I just did to that bathroom. You’re gonna wanna give it a good fifteen minutes,” Maria said, finally joining them. 

“Thanks, DeLuca,” Alex groaned. 

“I rinse this part out, right?” Michael said, holding up the silicone liner. 

“Yeah, sorry, I can get it later.” 

“No, it’s fine. I want to help.” 

“Michael, don’t go in—” 

“JESUS, DELUCA!” Michael shouted, laughing and choking, though he was greatly exaggerating for comedic effect, because once he got Alex and Maria laughing he went straight: “Come on,  _ really _ ? I’ve slept in worse-smelling places than this. Your dainty girly shits cannot compare. Not to the bomb  _ I’m  _ about to drop—” 

Alex covered his face, groaning. “Oh, my god, there’s  _ two  _ of them, now,” he moaned.

“Don’t be such a prince,” Maria said, sitting on Alex’s lap and petting his hair. “Everything okay?” 

“Yeah. Guerin’s...just being Guerin. But I think he’s trying.” 

“I meant with us. I know  _ he’s  _ a mess,” Maria said. “Sorry I had to step away at dinner. Sometimes when he freaks, I don’t block it, and then  _ I  _ freak…and I left you to deal with Hurricane Guerin alone. I’m sorry. Thanks for covering.” 

“No problem. You were right, it turns out. Way right.” 

“Only because I was wrong first,” Maria said. “Way wrong. I still thought he’d need us to go easy, give him space but he—that’s all he’s ever had. He’s used to pushing people away because he’s just used to being alone.”

“So you’re saying...he doesn’t actually want to be alone, even though he tries to push everyone away?” 

Maria pursed her lips thoughtfully and nodded. “Yep. What can I say? I know my boys. You’re both  _ backward _ .” 

“Thanks,” Alex said, rolling his eyes again. “Backward in...very different ways. We need you to sort it out.”

“Clearly.”

“Except when  _ you  _ need  _ me  _ to sort things out.” 

“Don’t get cocky. You’re the pinch hitter at best.” 


	6. Chapter 6

“So, did you want to talk about the notebook at all, now that we’re alone?” Maria asked, sitting on the arm of Alex’s chair. 

Michael, returning from the bathroom, had slunk past them, still in just an undershirt and his orange silk underwear, to sit on the edge of the bed. He looked like he wanted to talk but was screwing up his courage to do so, which was why she had offered. 

“We don’t have to,” Maria continued, giving him space she knew he didn’t want, but feeling like she needed to offer, anyway. “We dealt with a lot today already and—” 

“Yes,” Michael said.

Alex and Maria sat up a little straighter as Michael continued: 

“And the answer is yes. I read the notebook, and yes, I want—I want all of that, anything you’ll give me.” Michael squeezed his hands together in front of him in such a way that he was digging his fingernails into his skin, not looking at either of them. “Except, uh. I really don’t want—I’m not ready for the nice stuff, yet. Not until I make up for—for fucking up, for scaring you, hurting you… It’s just easier for my stupid brain if we just—”

“You’re not stupid,” Maria said. 

That stalled him out, made him breathe.

Alex sighed, heart aching and swelling at the same time, somehow. He rubbed his face, smearing eyeliner. “You wanted the third list first.” 

“Backwards,” Maria murmured. “We can go in any order you want, babe. Punishment list first.” 

Michael shrugged. “The order doesn’t matter, I just—need it to balance out at the end. You’ve been talking this whole night about what I need. What about what  _ you  _ need?” 

“What we need,” Alex repeated. He swallowed. “We wrote it all down, Michael. This is what we want, too.” 

“Then let’s talk about that,” Michael said. “Please.” 

Alex and Maria glanced at each other. Alex cleared his throat. “How about you bring me the notebook.”

Michael stood up and fetched the notebook, and when he handed it off, Maria held onto his arm. “What we need is to have you close.” 

Locking eyes with her, like he was the psychic one, Michael slowly got to his knees, right there in front of the chair.

Maria let out a sigh, nodding and running her hands through his hair. “That’s definitely a want, seeing you like this. Not a need.” 

“That’s even better, right?” Michael suggested with a wink. 

Alex, who was watching this whole exchange, cleared his throat. “Did, uh, did you have anything to add to these?” 

“My pages are in there. Not sure it’s anything you guys would like,” Michael said miserably, but with conviction. 

“Let us decide that, maybe?” Alex said. 

“Okay,  _ okay _ ,” Maria said, laying a hand over the notebook so that both she and Alex were looking at Michael. “This part’s important, Michael, look at me. Why? Why do you need this?”

“ _ Maria— _ ” Michael began, frustrated.

“Answer the question,” Alex said.

Michael did look at her, but his nostrils were flaring. “I—I messed up. And you guys don’t even hate me.”

“Well, we don’t hate you, and we’re not going to,” Maria said firmly. “Try again.” 

Michael licked his lips, taking another sharp, impotently raging breath. “It’s easier. I don’t understand kindness, but I understand—” 

“You’re not stupid, Michael,  _ try again _ ,” it was Alex’s turn to demand. “Why do you want it now.” 

“I need it to be fair. I need to be punished, not given gifts,” Michael huffed, and a tear tracked down his cheek. “A-and I need you to control me. Because I am always out of control.”

“Okay,” Maria said. “That we can do.” 

“We can do that for you,” Alex confirmed. “We can start more strictly, and ease back once you’ve earned it. Does that sound like something you want?”

“Yes,” Michael said, looking like he was barely keeping himself from shivering. 

“Just one thing,” Maria said, and grabbed his face, forcing him to look up at her from his knees. “You don’t  _ need  _ to be punished. If you  _ want  _ it, you can ask for it. Got that?” 

Michael shivered, but nodded, relaxing somewhat. “Okay.” 

“Do you want to be punished tonight? Spanked or—” 

Michael shook his head. “I mean, everyone’s kinda tired.” 

“Including you, so I agree. But you can stay kneeling there until we’re done with this. Okay? Just a little punishment,” Maria suggested, glancing at Alex. 

“Yeah, that’s good.” 

Michael tried on a grin and a shrug: “I mean, you’re kinda torturing me already by making me talk.” 

Alex huffed and opened up the notebook to the third list, comparing Michael’s notes to theirs. In every case, Michael’s suggestions were more extreme, more unrealistic, more like rough porn. 

“Maria and I will have to talk about some of these,” Alex said, passing the papers to Maria, who would figure out a nice way to say  _ there’s no fucking way we’re making you sleep on the goddamned floor, Guerin _ . “But for now, let’s start with the obvious. Your cock stays locked 24/7 unless one of us releases you, starting now. You said you want to serve time, so we’ll set a time limit to that.” 

Michael nodded, looking vaguely pained, but relieved, also. “Yeah, that’s—fine.” 

“There’s something else in my bag for you, then,” Alex said, sending Michael for it, this time crawling on his hands and knees mostly because it was only a few feet away. “Left zipper pocket, jewelry box.” 

Inside was a small electronic padlock. “This lock will text us if it comes open, okay? So, even if you used your powers—” 

“I wouldn’t, not if you told me—” 

“If you needed to, or something, like in an emergency situation. We’d know about it,” Alex continued. “It’s a way to keep you safe.”

“You want to lock yourself in, or do you want me to?” Maria asked. 

“I-I-I can,” Michael said, though he fumbled the small lock several times. When he finally got it, locking himself into that small steel cage that took away his concern for his own pleasure, forced him to look beyond his own needs, and literally prevented him from screwing up at least in this one way, Alex and Maria’s phones both buzzed, alerting them that the lock was armed. 

“Okay, done. Feel better?” 

Michael swallowed. “Y-yeah, actually.” 

Maria wanted so badly to touch him, to praise him, but she resisted. He needed this  _ backward _ . Had to dig through the shit before you could lay a foundation with Guerin. But she did smile at him, so he’d know he was a good boy. She was reminded how domesticated dogs had unlearned from being wolves that showing your teeth was a good thing. She wondered where on that domestication spectrum Guerin was.

“No alcohol is on this list,” Maria said then, glancing at the notebook on Alex’s knee. “Might make this trip a little less fun.” 

“We brought champagne.” 

Michael looked pained. “You can drink it without me. It’d probably be good for me.” 

“Very probably,” Alex agreed. 

“You can be DD tomorrow,” Maria suggested. “But I think we’ll save the champagne. Maybe for when you’re—no longer being punished.” 

“When I’m un-grounded?” Michael suggested, with a bemused look. 

“ _ Grounded _ , that’s the word we were looking for!” Maria realized, cupping his face in delight. “When you get in trouble you get grounded.” 

“Grounded like an aircraft or pilot that can’t or isn’t authorized to fly,” Alex said, giving Michael a considering look. “Or, connecting a powerful electrical current to the ground to make it safe.” 

“Yeah,” Michael said, with a vague smirk, like he was already feeling better. “That last one’s definitely me.” 

“Yeah, it is.” Alex huffed, and looked down the list. “No underwear. You have to earn the right to wear underwear.” 

“Fine.” 

“How about you give us a ‘yes, sir,’ or ‘yes, ma’am,’ when you’re on your knees, hm?” Maria suggested. 

“Yes, ma’am,” Michael said immediately, and then he moved, slipping out of the orange silk panties, and tossing them in the laundry pile. 

“Shirt off, too. You’ll be naked in bed, always,” Alex said, tapping the list. “We want...easy access.” 

“Got it,” Michael said, and he was really grinning that time—he liked that rule—and tugged off his shirt, too, before he corrected, “Yes, sir.” 

“Once we’re home, you’ll alternate who you stay the night with, and you’ll have a strict curfew, come to one of us straight after work, or ask permission if you want to go anywhere else,” Maria said. 

Michael recognized that caveat as an out to go see his siblings if he wanted to, but part of him really didn’t mind the excuse to not to. 

“You can and will use my truck, once you fix it up,” Maria continued. 

“Yes, ma’am,” Michael agreed, because that was good, too, that was fair, he was just borrowing her truck so she didn’t have to drive him everywhere, and keeping it in good repair for her. But he needed  _ more  _ now, now that he’d got a taste for it. “But for right now.”

Maria nodded, pointing at the list. “Right now, and for the foreseeable future, you are not allowed to orgasm without permission.” 

Michael’s eyes flashed, but that made his spine turn to liquid. “Y-yes, ma’am,” he said quietly. “Thank you.” 

“And again, for the foreseeable future, you come to us for any kind of pain you want. You’re not to hurt yourself, and we’re not ever going to hurt you without an explicit request ever again,” Alex said. 

Michael nodded. He could deal with that. That seemed easier in some ways, if he could just ask for it whenever he needed it? (Yeah, like asking for anything was easy for him.) 

“So no more acting bratty to get attention,” Maria said. 

“I’m not bratty!” Michael protested, brattily. 

“Right,” Alex mused. “And no more bar fights. That counts as self-harm: not allowed.” 

Michael grumbled, but said nothing. 

“These aren’t Grounded rules, Michael. These are effectively permanent, as long as we want this contract, or until we revise it,” Maria said. 

Michael nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I understand.”

“And you’ll obey all reasonable requests from either of us,” Alex added. 

“That’s easy.” 

“No, that’s difficult. What if I asked you to be proud of yourself tonight?” Maria suggested. 

Michael actually laughed, and then winced. “Oh, God, you’re serious. Proud of that  _ tantrum  _ I threw?” 

“See? Bratty. I’ll amend the request to give you a better shot,” Maria said. “ _ Try _ to be proud of yourself for tonight. And you can rub my feet while we watch a movie.” 

“Told you those shoes were bad for you,” Michael said, but that was easy. Service, that was good. He  _ liked  _ that one. Something he could  _ do _ . Michael smirked. “Want me to rub anything else?” 

“Mm, don’t ever lose that sass, but no. That is an order, too.” 

Michael laughed again, more joyful this time, tossing his curls in front of his face.

“Okay. That’s the list, then. How many days?” Alex turned to Maria. 

“Well. The Lindsay nonsense was kind of Isobel’s fault, so that mitigates your sentence.”

“And we all messed up on the phone thing, so that’s a wash,” Alex pointed out. 

“You did scare us, pretty badly, though,” Maria continued. 

Michael could have added several more tallies against himself, but it didn’t sound like he was being consulted. 

“So, trial run for now. We could add...six days once we’re home? It has to be an even number, we’ll alternate who takes you home,” Alex suggested.

Maria nodded. “Seems a good start. Just long enough to get your head on straight.”

“Yeah,” Michael said, and sucked in a shaky breath. When he let it out, he felt calmer. “Okay.” 

There were boundaries to his world, now, structure to this relationship. He felt safe like this, under control, knowing what he needed to do. Knowing that he just had to be good and follow these rules for this fixed time, and all would be forgiven. Their kindness and care was something he could accept if he  _ earned  _ it. It didn’t matter how: through suffering, through service, through being  _ good  _ for them. 

There were physical reminders, too, vaguely but appropriately uncomfortable, that he could focus on—his knees on the floor, the chill, the fucking kinky as hell chastity cage that kept him from getting hard—but it was the kind of discomfort he almost liked: it helped him focus on them, knowing their focus was on him, too. 

“Good boy,” Maria hummed, and nothing had ever sounded sweeter. “Go brush your teeth and come back to bed. We want you in the middle, where we can keep an eye on you.” 

Maria hugged Alex when Michael disappeared. “That was intense. You okay?” 

“I’ll feel better when we’ve got him in bed. I still feel like he might bolt at any time.”

“I think he’s still worried we could dump him at any time, so…” Maria shrugged. “Only way to soothe that is time.” 

“You okay?” 

“Yeah. He feels more...grounded. In the sense of even-keel. I can’t believe we couldn’t think of that word. It’s very all-purpose. Let’s watch a movie to calm down.” 

“Yes,” Alex said, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV, checking out their options. After a few moments, they both had to breathe carefully. 

“I think we should do the handprint. Ask for it,” Maria said.

“We can’t demand it. That’s in our rules, whether he wants to fucking look at them or not. We don’t try to control his powers.” 

“So we ask him.” 

“Ask him what?” Michael said. The way he stood there, so uncertain, like he just wanted to get on his knees for them again, had Maria cooing.

“Come here, baby, come to bed. You look gorgeous like this, all naked and locked up tight for us. Come to bed.” 

Michael rolled his eyes but allowed himself to be tugged to the center of the bed, right in Maria’s warm spot. His skin was cool to the touch, and Maria started piling covers on him. 

“What would you say to a handprint?” Maria asked, once he was tucked cozily up against her while Alex took his turn in the bathroom. “On both of us. Just to check in.” 

Michael winced a little. 

“This isn’t an order, just a request,” she clarified. “Tonight was a lot. I understand if you want to be private about it…” 

“No, it’s okay. It would be—mm—nice. I do feel better, now, and I know that’s, like, crazy. I want you two to know that.” Then he made a face, and drew back to grin at her brilliantly, and Maria could have cried because the smile reached his eyes when he told her, “I mean I’ve already given you the key to my cock, I might as well let you have the key to my heart.” 

“Awww, Michael!” Maria squealed. 

Alex reappeared from the doorway just in time to sigh hugely. “Ugh, don’t you think we’ve had  _ enough  _ cheese for tonight?” 

“Never, get over here,” Michael said. 

“I thought I gave the orders around here.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, get over here,  _ sir _ ,” Michael said, reaching out with his freakishly long arms and yanking Alex off-balance and into bed.

Maria laughed brightly, both at the undignified tumble Alex ended up in and Michael’s triumphant laugh that turned into a sort of wrestling match. Maria shrieked and ran for cover on the other side of the huge bed as the two men tried to pin each other, but Michael with his brawling experience was no match for Alex’s upper-body strength and training in how to use it.

“Ow! Damn it, Guerin, I put my elbow right on your hardware!” Alex shouted, snatching a time out from the jaws of victory. 

“Ow, believe me, I felt it!” Michael moaned, rolling over and cupping himself. 

“Ooh,  _ pobrecito _ ,” Maria cooed, brushing Michael’s hair back from his face. “Want me to put some ice on it?” 

“That might solve several problems, yeah,” Michael chuckled.

“Only you would be turned on by an elbow to the dick,” Alex groaned, still rubbing his elbow. “Are we done showing off for the lady? And are you okay?” 

“I guess so,” Michael said, burrowing under the thick blankets again between them. “Where do you want it?” 

“Want—oh! The handprint.” Maria said. “Stomach’s usually a good spot.” 

“Me, too,” Alex said. 

“Okay,” Michael said, turning around so he was facing both of them where they leaned up against the headboard, and laid his hands on their stomachs. He got a great glimpse of Maria’s too-tiny underwear like this, lifting up her shirt, which made his mouth water, and also Alex’s sensible, masculine boxer-briefs. (Ah, boxer-briefs, Michael chuckled to himself, he remembered those.) 

“Mm, your hands are warm,” Maria hummed. “Ready.” 

“I’m trying.” Michael laughed, a little breathlessly. “It’s hard to do it when I’m just...relaxed. I swear this doesn’t usually happen to me.” 

“Alien power dysfunction affects one in five Antarans, I hear,” Alex teased, leaning forward to kiss him. 

“I  _ hate  _ you,” Michael laughed, but the kiss made his hands glow. 


	7. Chapter 7

At first, Michael was a little uncomfortable, physically, at leaving the hotel wearing nothing but hardware under his jeans—even growing up as poor as he had, Michael had always had  _ underwear _ , so this was an entirely new sensation. He was also totally painfully turned on, mentally, at how smug he felt like this, how owned and secretly kinky and loved and kept he felt like this. It was a perfect blend of public and private, a burden and a gift, teasing and torture. A cage that made him want to stay. 

They each had a copy of the key: Maria slid hers onto the chain of her flower necklace, and Alex, very practically, kept his on his keychain, right by his house keys and car fob. It was, for Michael, a very physical, visible reminder of their responsibility, a contract, even, showing Michael that  _ they were kept, too _ , in their own way. 

It made him smug as hell. Like, yes, he, Michael Guerin the unwanted loser, had landed these two gorgeous, brilliant, loving, complicated, fierce people, and they wanted to keep him so much  _ they _ weren’t going to let him leave. 

And once that was all settled in his brain, it was like the rest of the world got brighter and more exciting, like a veil had been lifted. Turns out he saw more of how wonderful the world was when he wasn’t always checking for the exits.

They saw parts of Albuquerque Michael had only ever dreamed of seeing as a kid. The Nuclear Science and History Museum was a wet dream for Alex and Michael both, and Michael spent two hours just in the Planetarium part of the Natural History Museum and insisted they catch a show, even though that cost more, just so he could sit back in those planetarium recliners and imagine he was really in space for 30 minutes, with Maria and Alex sitting on either side of him, holding his hands. After that, he let Alex and Maria drag him to an art museum across the street, and it didn’t totally suck, mostly because they both linked arms with him as they guided him around. 

“Yeah, I thought that was gonna be way more boring,” Michael said over dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant—Roswell wasn’t exactly known for its Asian cuisine, and Alex, apparently, had a hankering. Michael had stopped trying to reach for the check: this place was definitely more his speed and he  _ could  _ have, except apparently this whole weekend was a date, and as the invitee, he wasn’t allowed to pay for anything. “Max is the worst to go with to stuff like that, and Isobel’s not much better.”

“What, doesn’t everyone focus on the tits and dicks in high art?” Maria asked. 

Alex shook his head, grinning. “You two are so uncultured.” 

“Alright, next time  _ you  _ can go with Max to an art show and talk about the inner turmoil of man,” Michael grinned, stealing one of Alex’s spring rolls and eating it. 

“Thanks, Guerin, but I get enough ‘inner turmoil of man’ from you,” Alex replied, stealing some food off Michael’s plate (and Michael found he didn’t even flinch at that). 

“Hey, he’s been good today, haven’t you, baby?” Maria said, “How about we talk about the inner turmoil of  _ woman  _ and what we’re gonna do tonight.” 

Alex just groaned, though with a smile. “We’ve been arguing about this ever since you forgot we existed in the Planetarium.” 

“They have a Mars Rover replica, Alex. I’m not going to apologize for wanting to play with it! Why, what’s up?” 

Alex laughed and waved a hand. “He could be the tiebreaker?” 

Maria narrowed her eyes at Michael, as if trying to decide who he would side with before asking him. “Well I want to go to a club tonight, since there’s nowhere cool to go dancing in Roswell unless you want linedancing.”

“Well, there you go, because that’s the only kind of dancing I can remotely do.” 

“That’s not true!” Alex said, sitting up, struck by a memory. “You could do some breakdancing in high school! I remember!” 

Michael laughed, lowering his voice. “I mean, it’s pretty easy to do the spins and balancing things if you’re  _ cheating… _ And I’m pretty sure the white boy dancing I did at Isobel’s wedding won’t make me a fun date. What did you want to do, Alex?”

“Well, Popejoy Hall still has tickets for  _ Les Miserables _ …”

Michael turned back to Maria at once. “Okay, so dancing. Where were you thinking?” 

“Ugh, I hate you,” Alex laughed, sitting back in his seat. They were in a booth, with Maria and Michael across from him. And he had already had a wonderful day full of things he had enjoyed, so he would be fine with whatever. “Would you guys like to go dancing without me? I haven’t...um.”

Maria reached out to take his hand when he hesitated. “You used to be good. That salsa class we were all in?” 

Alex shrugged. “I still...might be. I always took the occasional ballroom dancing class when they offered them on bases and stuff. Just haven’t tried since I lost the leg.”

There was a pregnant pause. 

Michael surprised them by setting his chopsticks down. “Well, DeLuca, I’m pretty sure we’ll lose Alex forever if we let him within a hundred feet of a performing arts center alone.”

“ _ That _ is a gross stereotype,” Alex protested. 

“You want to go to the  _ theater _ , Alex, and you just told us we enjoyed an art gallery wrong. You have never been more of a stereotype,” Michael laughed, and Maria laughed, too. “We let you go see _Les Mis_ alone, you’ll find some blue-haired, poetry-slamming hunk...” he teased, as Alex wedged his prosthetic against the wall under the table and began to apply pressure to Michael’s shin until Michael’s smile faded into a moan. “Ow, ow, ow!” 

“Please, not in public,” Maria said, looking at her phone. “Okay, what if we went to a gay nightclub?” 

Alex and Michael looked to her. 

“Aren't we worried about blue-haired poetry-slam—” 

“Shut up, Guerin. It just so happens to be salsa night at one of the gay bars. You in?” 

Alex sighed. “We’ll have to get something for Guerin to wear.” 

“Right. We’ll swing by the mall right now,” Maria said, dropping some money on the table for tip. 

Michael whined loudly in the car ride, though he was obviously playing it up. “Okay, okay.  _ Say  _ I agree to this. Two addendums to our Agreement.” 

“Cute that you think you have a choice,” Alex said from the back seat. “But we’ll entertain a temporary suspensions of rules. Which ones?” 

“One, you  _ can’t  _ make me be sober at a dance club. I’m not sure I know how to dance sober.”

“Yeah, that’s a no,” Maria said, glancing at her phone as it directed them to the nearest mall. “Who would be our designated driver if you drink? We have to drive to this place. Or Lyft, and I know you  _ hate  _ spending unnecessary money.” 

Michael groaned, breathing harshly through his nose. “Okay, fine, fine. Addendum two. I’m just guessing here, but cock cage and no underwear while dancing is going to result in some serious bruising that  _ none  _ of us are going to like.”

“Mm, you never know, some of us might,” Maria said with a wink, but she didn’t know much about having a dick, so she bunted that one to Alex. “Ask your Daddy.” 

“Ew, Maria,” Alex laughed. “Yes, you should wear actual underwear. All rules are always suspended if your health and wellbeing are at risk. And I think you being sober for a few nights in a row will actually  _ benefit  _ your health and wellbeing, so...”

Michael leaned his head against the window. “I hope you know I’m really suffering for this. For you.” 

“We do, and we appreciate your sacrifice.” 

“But this  _ is  _ what you asked for.” 

Michael leaned back in his seat with a groan, but he was grinning as he closed his eyes. “I know.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to the 2x06 haters. And by "dedicated" I mean "Don't like; don't read."

Michael was sweating. 

Oh, sure, he could dance by some definition. But he could  _ not  _ salsa. He was in Maria’s  _ head  _ even, with enough residual handprint to know where he was supposed to step, and he was still getting it all wrong. 

“It’s okay, you’re doing fine,” Maria said, when he flubbed again, stepping on her foot. She was leading him, obviously not something she was used to doing, and it was fun only inasmuch as they were doing a lot of laughing, mostly at him. 

“I’m so bad at this, DeLuca. Just take me out back and shoot me already,” he shouted loud enough to be heard over the music.

“Nah, you’re getting it! Just have fun!” 

They had been bedecked with glow necklaces and glitter upon entry, which was never coming out of Michael’s hat, thanks, but whatever. 

Alex had decided to sit out the first few dances, nursing a fruity cocktail that Maria and Michael totally made fun of him for, but they let him soak up the atmosphere. Alex of course couldn’t be seen in Roswell’s one gay bar, mostly as a holdover from his dad and DADT, but here he was safe. 

Here he was not alone, not a freak. He was in fact wearing  _ less  _ eyeliner than most of the men here, and more than some of the women. 

And Alex was way hotter, in Michael and Maria’s opinion, as they suddenly found themselves interrupted by him on the dancefloor. 

“Can I cut in?” he shouted, and they were both so surprised and pleased that there was a half-moment of confusion where Michael thought Alex wanted to dance with  _ him _ before he realized Alex was looking at  _ Maria _ . Of course, his old dance partner. And meanwhile, Michael could get off his feet and watch them move together. 

“Are you nervous?” Maria asked, as they started with just some hip rolls, not moving their feet, getting a feel for the beat.

Alex laughed, bright and trembly. “I’m so nervous. Be prepared to catch me if I just, fall right off my leg. I’m really not sure it’s rated for this.” 

“You’ll be fine!”

“Fine like you were telling Guerin he was doing fine just now?” Alex teased, tucking her close. “I’m gonna need half-time to start, I think.” 

“Got it. I got you, Alex.” 

Michael stared dumbly at them, unable to look away. He needed to wander off to find a bathroom. He needed to find something nonalcoholic to drink. He wanted to find a place to sit  _ down _ . But he couldn’t look away, even for a second. He could never look away from those two. The way their hips moved was just—he’d had sex with both of these people and he didn’t know their hips could do  _ that _ . 

Oh, sure, there were pretty people all around him—there was at least one other guy in a cowboy hat there who kept trying to nod at him, like he thought they should hook up just because they matched or something, and there were two gorgeous blonde women feeling each other up while they salsad or rumbad or whatever it was people were doing out there, but as hot as that genuinely was, Michael literally only had eyes for two Maria and Alex. 

And fuck, yeah, however much things were getting painfully constricting down there, at least he wasn’t getting a boner in public, which he might otherwise have done, so he kind of...liked the cage. He got a bit of a rush every time a couple walked past with one of them leading the other on a leash, and someone else was wearing some kind of bondage rope harness as a shirt, and there was lots of leather mixed in with all the rainbows and fake cowboys, and, yeah, Michael concluded he was really, really into that. Also there were sorority girls. He really did not expect all the (ostensibly straight) sorority girls. He thought about telling Maria he’d found her people just in the hopes he might get a spanking. 

Except, rules were now, he had to  _ ask _ for things like that. He could ask for that. Maybe he could do that tonight. Maybe he should. He was definitely in the mood for it.

But for now, he was watching. He slid into a seat when one became available, his feet aching in his boots, his dick and heart aching at how beautiful they were. Whatever they were doing didn’t look like dancing at half-time to him, like they had sped up maybe without noticing it. And boy, Alex was  _ moving _ . Michael forgot he was missing the leg half the time he was wearing pants anyway, but like this Michael seriously wondered if he had somehow grown it back. No fear, no hesitation. They danced so well together. 

And, Michael thought, catching the glint of the key around Maria’s neck, he was _ theirs. _

After what felt like only a few dances but was actually a solid half hour of dancing, Maria and Alex limped off the dancefloor to join him at—oh, right, he’d somehow found a table, good, no wonder his feet didn’t hurt anymore. Maria was supporting Alex, and Michael came alive all at once, jumping to his feet to pull a chair out for Alex, who was laughing. 

“Oh my God, I can’t believe I just did that,” he said, grabbing Michael’s shirt and hauling him into a kiss. 

“You were amazing,” Michael agreed, hoping Alex would just leave his hand in his shirt forever. “You both were.” 

Maria, for her part, flopped into her seat also laughing and shaking her head. “You’ve still got it, I’m telling you! We need to go dancing more often. Teach Guerin.” 

“I know how to dance!” Michael protested. “We should go country square dancing back home, just to be the only triangle there.” 

Alex and Maria howled with laughter, and it was Maria’s turn to kiss Michael, hauling him in by his hair. 

“You wanna go get us some waters, baby?” she asked, opening up her tiny purse and handing him some cash. 

When Michael was gone, Maria watching him closely, she asked Alex, “Then maybe we can get back out there?” 

Alex shook his head, patting her hand on the table. “Oh, no. My leg already feels like it’s going to fall the rest of the way off. I’m done for the night. But that was— _ so fun,  _ Maria. Thank you.”

Maria leaned in and hugged him, kissing his cheek. “Any time, Al.” 

“...Now is it just me, or is Michael flirting with that bartender…?” 

Maria laughed. “That’s definitely just you. We can’t punish him even if he was, remember? He’s already Grounded.” 

“I know.” Alex licked his lips. He felt invigorated by the dancing, like the whole world was his. Starting with Guerin. “I want to take him home and….” 

“Do filthy things to him?” 

Alex nodded. “Yeah.” 

“We could, ah. Tie him to the bed, tag-team him…” Maria suggested. “I could take a bath while you have your fun, and vice versa…”

But Alex looked at her under long, dark eyelashes, through eyeliner that was beginning to smear. “We could both play with him at the same time, can’t we?” 

Maria’s heart skipped a beat. 

“W-would that be okay with you?” she asked, trying not to sound too hopeful. 

Alex laughed and shrugged. “I feel like I could go for anything, now. I feel...free. And I don’t think they take away your gay card if you’re in the same room as a naked vagina.” 

Maria laughed, rolling her eyes as Michael came back, with three bottles of water and a pitcher and two glasses. 

“You guys were too busy flirting with each other to notice me flirting with the bartender, I see,” Michael said. He gave Maria back her cash—all of it.

“I knew it!” Alex cried, while Michael poured them each some kind of watered-down crappy cocktail.

“He wouldn’t leave me alone til I let him buy me a drink, but I said my Doms weren’t letting me drink tonight, so he bought  _ you  _ guys a drink and said ‘my compliments’ or some shit.” Michael was grinning, his nose curling up with the way he was laughing. “I dunno, he might be trying to get you two drunk and kidnap me.” 

“Not gonna have much fun with you since we’ve got you locked up,” Alex said, turning and raising his glass at the bartender, who gave him a two-finger salute in return. 

“I might’ve told him that,” Michael said, eyes going suddenly wide in realization, and laughing again. “I can’t believe I said that! What  _ is  _ it about a gay bar? It’s like the rules don’t matter.” 

Maria laughed, squeezing the back of his neck as she slid closer to him. “You want to scream it from the mountaintops, don’t you? That you’re ours and we’re keeping you.” 

“ _ Yeah… _ Yes, DeLuca...” 

Alex pressed on his other side, one hand sliding up his thigh. “Maybe we’ll take you home and  _ really  _ remind you that you’re ours. Use you up until you pass out.” 

Michael swallowed, nodding. “Oh, fuck.” 

“You want that, baby? Even with your dick locked up you’ve still got two good holes….”

“Two good hands…”

“Uh-huh,” Michael gasped, as his cock went from mildly interested to immediately straining in its confines. If he’d been unlocked he might’ve busted out of his jeans. “Yeah. Yeah, you—you want me—at the same time?” 

He glanced at Alex, who actually laughed. “Why is it always  _ me  _ who you guys think is gonna stand in the way here? You know Maria was my first kiss, right?” 

“What? No!” Michael said, looking back and forth between them like he didn’t know them at  _ all _ . 

Maria nodded. “Everyone always thought we were dating, anyway, so we fooled around a bit when we were, I dunno, thirteen? Before Alex came out.”

“I...hang on, I just need a minute to recalibrate,” Michael said, weak enough that they barely heard him over the music. “Are we sure this cage is rated for how horny you guys are making me just  _ thinking  _ of you two making out?” 

“Guess we’ll find out,” Alex said, rubbing over the bulge hard enough to make Michael whimper. 

“Oh, God,” Michael said, looking faint, as Maria leaned in, and Alex met her halfway. They were on either side of him, so they were practically on top of him like this. Michael sucked in a breath as their lips touched, Alex continuing to slide his fingers over Michael’s caged dick while Maria reached up to touch Michael’s chest. 

The first place Michael’s brain short-circuited into was a two straight chicks making out kind of fetish, since it was totally performative for his benefit—wasn’t it? Except, maybe it wasn’t…? He was still processing that. Maybe it was more like—even better—like he was just a conduit through which they could enjoy each other as more than just friends, and  _ yes _ . Holy shit, holy shit, he was going to catch fire like this, right here in the gay bar with everyone watching. Because, oh, right, they were doing this in  _ public _ . Maria Businesstime DeLuca and Alex Absolutely No PDA Our Entire Fucking Relationship Is A Secret Manes were groping him and making out with each other in public! 

Michael swallowed, his mouth totally dry. He actually felt vaguely faint. “Can, uh—any time you wanna get out of here, I’m ready to go.” 

They ignored him. Maria lifted her free hand to run her fingers through Alex’s hair, the two of them still locking lips. 

“G-guys?” Michael tried again, voice cracking as Maria pinched his nipple. “Guys, you are literally killing me here!” 

Maria cracked first, snorting as she pulled away from the kiss.

“Eugh, Maria!” Alex complained, wiping his face. “See this is why I don’t kiss girls unless I’ve had at least three drinks.”

“Guerin’s a better kisser than you,” Maria retorted 

“He’s a better kisser than everybody. It’s the heat, and the rain smell. No human can resist.” 

“ _ Tell _ me about it,” Maria moaned. Her hand tightened in Michael’s shirt. “Maybe we really should get out of here.” 

“ _ Please _ ,” Michael said, standing up, mostly so Alex had to stop groping him. “I am so ready to go.” 

Maria whined. “Aw, I love this song!” she said, a wicked gleam in her eye. 

“ _ DeLuca _ ,” Michael said, grabbing her firmly and pulling her against him, vaguely like he was threatening her, but she could feel him trembling. “If you’re going to torture me, I am begging you to do it somewhere  _ private  _ before I break every glass and lightbulb in this damn bar.” 

“Come on, DeLuca,” Alex said, tugging her arm as he stood up. He wince-laughed as he stood up. “I’m definitely going to need help walking out of here. God, I am so sore.” 

“Oh, fine,” Maria said, and both of them tucked themselves on either side of Alex as they headed out of the club and toward the car. 


	9. Chapter 9

They piled into the car, Maria and Alex giggling drunkenly, and Michael, long-suffering and sober but still emotionally high on the knowledge that Maria and Alex had kissed before,  _ liked  _ kissing each other, and kissed right in front of him just to get him riled up. He considered himself well and truly riled. His hands were shaking as he looked up the directions back to their hotel, and Alex took his phone to help him out. 

“Get us home safe. If we get into a wreck no one’s having a threesome tonight.” 

“Yes, sir,” Michael practically panted. 

“I’ll text you, Al,” Maria said from the back seat, already kicking off her shoes and curling up on the seat. 

“What are you texting about?” Michael asked, his voice still pitching high. They were all talking too loud from the club music, and Alex yawned to try to clear his ears. 

“About things that would make you crash the car if we said them aloud,” Alex said. “Just drive.” 

_ Maria: ok ok ok _

_ Maria: at the same time, you’re sure about this _

_ Maria: like obviously hands off each other except for kissing, maybe _

_ Alex: Definitely kissing. Did you see his face?  _

_ Maria: 👀👀👀 _

_ Maria: I mean we could make out while he gives us oral in turn. Tell me that’s as good for you as it is for me. _

_ Alex: He could give you head while he jerks me off. He’s got good hands, too.  _

Maria actually laughed aloud. 

“What?” Michael said. 

“It’s not called ‘head’ for a girl, Alex.” 

“Isn’t it?” Alex and Michael both said at once. 

“ _ I’ve _ never used that!” Maria laughed again. 

_ Alex: Fine, if you’re gonna be like that, he can give me head and he can finger you.  _

Maria stopped laughing. 

_ Maria: noooooo _

_ Maria: fine fine fine!  _

_ Maria: you win. What do you want with him, then?  _

_ Alex: What I REALLY want is to use the violet wand on him in the hopes he’ll zap my leg to stop hurting. I’m afraid I’m not gonna be good for much otherwise. But that’s against the rules _

_ Maria: we could ask him if HE wants the violet wand. No rule against us asking. _

_ Alex: Okay, if he says yes, I’ll just tease him with that while he’s eating you out—is that better? _

_ Maria: yes  _ 🥰

_ Alex: I mean we don’t need to map out the whole night. Anything you’re not okay with?  _

_ Maria: don’t think so. We should probably not have genital contact. _

_ Alex: Yeah, definitely. You’re okay watching? _

_ Maria: yeah, are you?  _ 😺  _ don’t scare you? _

_ Alex: I mean if it looks like THAT it might.  _ 😅

_ Maria: good, cuz I might get off on like, watching him ride you or something. THAT okay? _

_ Alex: YEAH  _ 🔥

_ Maria: think we could all pile into that bathtub together after? _

_ Alex: Oh my God can we just skip the sex and go straight to the bathtub? _

_ Maria: suit yourself I got a boyfriend to torture _

_ Alex: Ugh fine.  _ 😉

_ Alex: I’m kidding. We’ll use color check ins for each other as well as him, ok?  _

_ Maria: ok  _

_ Maria: any preference for toys I should get out?  _

There was a long pause this time as Alex typed out a thoughtful response.

_ Alex: Violet wand, butt plug, lube, handcuffs...do you have a collar? I’m drunk enough to admit I want to see him in a collar. Sue me. _

_ Maria: !!!! _

_ Maria: I do!! He’ll be so cute! _

_ Alex: Oh god it’s pink isn’t it? Never mind. I want him in a punk one. With spikes!  _

“Okay, what is so goddamned funny about leaving me out of an entire conversation?” Michael demanded, fussy now that they were both cackling helplessly. “We’re here, and I hate you both.” 

“Good, you’re gonna hate us a lot more before the night is over,” Maria said with a smile. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, the smut! Heed the tags!

“Use me, _use_ me,” Michael begged up against the wall, after they staggered into the hotel room together, locked the door, and dropped Alex somewhat unceremoniously into a chair to get his prosthetic _off_ . “Please, _please_ , I want whatever—I just want it hard and—fuck—” 

Michael made a choking sound as Maria grabbed him by the throat—or, with the size of her hands, really, the actual jugular, and yanked him down into a kiss. That relaxed him somewhat, made him melt, wanting to be hers, to feel her fingerprints on his skin for days. 

“You want us to hurt you?” she whispered, licking his jaw while he could barely breathe. “That’s what Alex wants, you’ll make him so happy.” 

“Jesus, _yes_ ,” Michael whined, already sliding to his knees, looking back and forth between them. “Please, hurt me. Use me. Punish me. Anything you want. I’m asking for it, I need you so bad, both of you— _anything_ —”

“Okay, no, no, stay up—give us—go take a few minutes in the bathroom.” 

Maria heaved Michael back to his feet. Alex already had his pants tangled around his ankles getting his prosthetic off, and they weren’t _drunk_ , the two of them, but they were definitely sloppy. This was going to be a sloppy night. They needed a minute. 

“I’m ready, I’m already ready,” Michael begged. “Please.” 

But Maria was firm. “No. Go get ready for bed, and come back here naked. And get on the bed. We’re not letting you leave it until morning.” 

Michael whined but he knew he had to obey—more than that, _wanted_ to obey, so he did, kissing her again, carrying the feel of her hand on his neck with him to the bathroom. 

Maria dropped down at Alex’s feet. “What do you need help with?” 

“I’ve got this. Get—uhh—whatever gear we need.” 

“Okay.” 

She was still digging through the suitcase when Michael sauntered out, and laughed. 

“You genuinely had me fooled that two entire suitcases were filled with shoes, DeLuca!” 

“You’re a brat,” Maria said, smiling. “Come here. You want us to punish you like a brat?” 

“Oh, yes. Yes, ma’am,” Michael said, crawling up onto the bed, his heart rate picking up in anticipation even as his whole body went loose and relaxed, just at the thought of getting absolutely wrecked by them. Then he remembered his new rules, and spoke more firmly: “Please punish me like a brat. Please use me to make you two feel good. I—I had a great time and I love you and I want to be good for you.” 

“ _Now_ I wonder if you’ve been drinking,” Alex purred, heaving himself up and over onto the bed, leaving his prosthetic tangled up with his pants on the floor. 

“No, sir, honest. Just what I tasted from your lips. I was good.” 

Michael actually had the audacity to wink while spouting poetry like that, and Alex kissed him bitingly. 

“Good, huh? Then I want you to eat your girlfriend out while I hurt you. I don’t stop til she comes, got it?” 

“Fuck. _Fuck_ ,” Michael said, like he’d just been given a million dollars. “Really?” 

“Really,” Maria said, laying out a tarp on the bed as much for themselves as for future guests and climbing on top of it. Dragging Michael with her, she propped herself up by the headboard, removing bra and panties from under her tiny clubbing dress, and the moment Michael caught the scent of her he moaned, dick already aching in its confines. 

(God, that was the _best part_ , that his locked dick making orgasm impossible to enjoy meant this was all about _their_ pleasure. And that made it a fair exchange, because they were at least getting orgasms if they didn’t enjoy tormenting him and—and he was pretty damn confident they enjoyed tormenting him, at least as much as he enjoyed being tormented.)

Michael almost didn’t notice Alex moving into position behind him, back braced against the footboard and propped up with pillows, until he felt something slide around his neck. He flinched, but Alex looped his belt through the buckle and held onto the end. 

“I think I’m gonna like holding your leash,” Alex said, tightening his hold to put the barest pressure on Michael’s throat. 

“Fuck. Yeah, that’s—that’s okay, that’s good,” Michael’s eyes rolled back and he whined, hips shifting helplessly as Maria pushed his hands behind him and locked a sturdy but comfortable pair of leather handcuffs around Michael’s wrists. “Me, too.” 

“Color?” Maria asked. 

“Green,” Michael said, and Alex echoed, “Green.” 

Michael looked vaguely surprised at hearing Alex speak, if anything could surprise a man who was about to have an unexpected threesome. 

“We’re all checking in tonight,” Maria explained. “Green. Now come here.” 

Together, they lowered Michael carefully forward. Without the use of his hands, he had to use his core muscles—or telekinesis—to keep from tipping forward or being choked by Alex holding him up by his belt around his throat. Michael whined, not quite able to reach her cunt like this. 

“Give me some slack, man,” he grumbled, rearranging his knees further under him, and Alex gave him a few inches—just enough to feel the pressure on his throat as he licked up her thighs. 

“Okay, now, I’m gonna use the wand on you, and you’re going to keep still,” Alex explained. “If you move, if you kick me or hurt Maria, we stop all of it.” 

“I’m not gonna kick—fuck!” Michael shouted, whole body tensing up, because the time gap and how blissed and fucked out he had been afterward had dulled the pain of this toy in his memory, and though his whole body sang at the sting of the electricity, it did _really_ hurt. 

“Easy, easy, I’ll turn it down,” Alex said, not quite admitting that that was an accident. “Incidentally, if you can make my leg stop hurting, I would not complain.” 

Michael moaned, pressing his face to Maria’s thigh. They were going to really have to zap the hell out of him if they wanted his powers to go off like that. 

“I thought you guys weren’t supposed to make me use my powers?” he teased, and then sat up to look behind him. Alex looked sheepish, but Michael grinned. “That’s a stupid rule, by the way. You can order me to lift something with my hands but not my brain?” 

Maria laughed. 

“Don’t use logic on us like that. Get back to work,” she said, grabbing two fistfulls of his hair and dragging him into position. 

For all that she had an audience, Maria didn’t last long—maybe because they’d been building up to this for a while, so she was primed and ready—maybe because she _liked_ Alex watching Michael go down on her—or maybe Guerin really was that sinfully good with his tongue, or maybe the added little sounds he was making, the whining, the choking, the soft yelps and moans helped her along, too. 

“Give him—loosen up—I need—” she gasped, and Alex gave Michael enough slack that she could just throw her entire leg over the back of his neck, feel the tingling currents running through him as he sucked on her clit and she came with a very unladylike grunt. “Aw, yeah, ah, fuck!” 

Alex was panting by the end, feeling like he had gone on a journey with them. He made no secret of how pleased he was to see Maria so happy when he didn’t have to actually _do_ anything to achieve it. God, Guerin really was bringing them together, bridging that gap that they thought had been unbridgeable because of his sexuality. Turns out, using Michael as the sex toy that they could both get off on in bed together worked really well for Alex. 

Oh, and Guerin. It clearly worked for him, too, because Michael was a whining mess, wet mouth, dilated eyes, red hard leaking cock locked in its cage, hands twisting in his cuffs, and ass nice and red from the attention of the violet wand. 

“How do you want him?” Maria asked Alex, breathless, trying to adjust her skirt for his benefit though things were way too late for that. “Color?” 

“Green,” Alex said, and Michael moaned “Green.” 

“I really should have been getting him ready, I want him to ride me.” 

Maria tossed the lube and a washcloth at him, and he handed the wand off to her. 

While Alex shoved blunt, slick fingers inside him, Maria gripped Michael’s hair and pressed his forehead to the tarp on the bed, telling him _to breathe, to let go, to relax, to let them_ , while she tapped the wand against his thighs and back, and Michael yelped and whined and flinched but couldn’t _move_. It made it really hard to relax, actually, and he tightened around Alex’s fingers as soon as he got him stretched. 

“Shh,” she said, tugging his hair on a particularly loud yelp. “You’re going to have to keep yourself quiet, baby, don’t want to upset the neighbors.”

“Fuck,” Michael groaned loudly, but not at any volume that would carry. He was actually drooling now, because Alex’s fingers were teasing his prostate. Oh, God, he already needed to come so bad, and he knew he wasn’t going to be allowed, or if he did, it would be ruined by the cage. 

And this overload of physical sensations with no outlet because he couldn’t scream and he couldn’t move was _nothing_ to how his brain had just slid down to the base of his spine where his thoughts were quieter, simpler, where he could _feel_ more intensely and it wasn’t terrifying at all because Maria and Alex were there. 

It was glorious. 

Michael whined again as Alex’s fingers left him, and grunted in desperation as Alex held him by the hips and guided him back onto his dick, positioning Michael’s knees on either side of his hips. Maria set down the wand and grabbed the end of Alex’s belt while Alex lowered Michael down all the way on his cock in one go, no matter how he whined and tensed and said “Fuck fuck fuck fuck,” until he was seated fully on his lap. 

“Fuck, that’s good. You’re so hot, Guerin,” Alex hissed, taking this opportunity to tease his nipples. “Watch this, Maria, he goes wild for this.” 

Still holding Michael’s hips down, Alex got just the tip of his finger sticky with precum—Michael was basically leaking steadily at this point—and rubbed his nipples with it. Maria watched them pebble instantly, and Michael threw his head back and swore colorfully.

“Fuck, fuck me, Alex,” he begged.

“You’re the one who’s going to be doing all the work, Guerin,” Alex told him. Michael’s thighs were already shaking in anticipation. 

“He really does have just the most responsive nipples,” Maria moaned, crawling up close to them both pulling Michael into a kiss with a tight hold on the belt. “Maybe we should get his nipples pierced.”

“Mm, fuck. I need to think about that with a clear head,” Alex moaned. “But I like it.” 

Maria curled a hand around Alex’s leg, turning to look at him past Michael. “It’s still alright that I’m here?” 

“Yeah—yeah.” Alex said, voice a little thin. “Keep him moving?” 

“You got it.” 

Maria slid Alex’s belt off Michael’s neck, doubling it up in one hand, the violet wand in the other. She smacked Michael once on the thigh, making him cry out and jump, before Alex laughed. 

“Okay, give me the belt. I don’t trust your aim near _my_ junk. He’s the one who’s into pain.” 

“You know what he’s not into is _waiting_ ,” Michael grunted, and was rewarded by the sharp slap of the belt on his flank and the violet wand sparking the inside of his thigh, and shit, that had him yelping and jumping, but really the pain just blended with the pain of the stretch of Alex’s cock and the ache in his thighs and his ass and his locked dick, so really, it was building to just a white noise of sensations, all of them so loud that every anxious thought and worry he ever had went quiet. 

“I want you to move, and I’m not gonna help you,” Alex said into the back of his neck, and slapped his side lightly with the doubled-up belt, letting it strike his ribs this time, which had him choking on a cry. Being whipped like that gave new meaning to reverse cowboy, but Michael saved his strength instead of cracking a joke. “I don’t want you to stop until I come. Maria’s gonna help.” 

Michael nodded, getting his legs under him enough to start moving. And if he thought he was already overloaded with sensations, Maria was right there, kissing and biting and zapping him while she fingered herself lazily. Was it bad that he already wanted to get his mouth on her again?

“Oh fuck,” he moaned, or tried to, the swear drowned out in her kisses, her hand tight in his hair or around his neck. If Michael thought he'd get to control the pace at which he rode Alex's dick, he was sorely mistaken—and soon quite literally sore. Alex whipped him or Maria zapped him if he slowed down even a little bit, until his thighs were burning and shaking from exertion more than the shocks and stings. When he found an angle for a few short shallow thrusts along his prostate that had him on the edge and Maria touched the wand to the metal of the cock cage to break his rhythm he actually sobbed. 

"Color?" Alex asked. 

Michael nodded even though he was definitely crying. He flooded their brains with green across the psychic link between them, even though he couldn’t manage to say anything more than “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Letting go enough to cry felt oddly amazing. He wasn't _sad_ or even _hurt_ , just overstimulated, and it was a little embarrassing to be seen like this, but Maria seemed to like it because she just shocked him again and kissed him while his lips were still tingly. Alex reached around to pinch his nipples viciously until Michael moved just _so_ until he came, hard, gripping Michael’s hips to move him how he wanted him as he finished. 

Michael was left sobbing and trying to eke out his own orgasm on Alex’s softening cock while Maria held him upright. 

“Alright, alright, you did good, you’re so good,” Alex gasped, easing Michael forward into Maria’s arms, and she backed up so his face was in her lap again. Alex and Maria stared at him between them, still whimpering and writhing, and then at each other, breathless and fucked out. 

“I think he can handle a little more.” 

“A little more?” 

They both felt it, felt the surge of _yes, please, more, don’t stop_. Michael was on the edge of a cliff, the edge of a breakthrough, and he was going to be flying in a moment if they just helped him along.

“Should I give him this?” 

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

Michael, still riding the agonizing high of being right on the edge, felt Alex pushing something inside him. _Please, please_ , he tried to say, but words were beyond him, and he was trying too hard not to be loud, so it only came out a garbled whine, but they knew. They knew what he wanted. He moaned, arching and sweating, knowing even a ruined orgasm would be worth it right now just to relieve some pressure. 

He wasn’t surprised when the plug began vibrating, and he clenched down on it, hips rocking helplessly. They rolled him onto his side so Maria could start licking his cock around the bars of the cage, and if that wasn’t going to actually murder him outright, Maria flipping fully around so they could sixty-nine while Alex just held him and watched was definitely going to. Alex and Maria held him between them like this, shushing him, praising him, petting him, telling him he belonged to them and how happy he made them as the plug emitted short little electric shocks that had him bucking and moaning weakly into Maria’s cunt. When he went a little too quiet, Alex gave him the occasional smack with his belt on the ass just to ratchet him up to an even higher plane. 

They might have wrung him out like this for hours or merely minutes before he came—for some definition of coming, dribbling all over Maria’s lips and his thigh and the tarp, leaving him still desperate but too exhausted to care. Right on cue, his powers pulsed, or more like flickered, weakly, turning on the lights and TV and making Alex’s leg and Maria’s feet feel worlds better.

“Better than medicine,” Maria gasped, flipping back around to hold Michael and kiss his face as he shook and sobbed. “It’s okay, baby, you’re good, you did good. I’m gonna let you go now. I’ve got you.” 

“I feel like a new man,” Alex agreed, panting, turning the plug off and pulling it out of Michael, also leaning forward to kiss his back. He couldn’t resist fingering him gently, since he was right there, and he loved touching him where he was so oversensitive until he cried again. “You give us so much, Michael. I love you. Thank you.” 

Maria was working the buckles on the cuffs when there was a knock at the door. 

Alex and Maria looked at each other, and Michael made a grunt of protest. 

_“Maintenance! Just checking...you didn’t notice a power surge?”_

“Oh! Yes!” Maria called, wiping her mouth as she scrambled off the bed and threw on a robe. Alex just tossed a blanket over his hips and entirely over Michael—leaving his fingers still in his ass. Michael whined. 

Maria cracked the door, talking to the maintenance person about how _odd_ that power surge was, like a surge in reverse, while Alex kept his fingers inside Michael, sliding them in and out of him, maddeningly gentle over his prostate, while Michael buried his face in the tarp and tried not to _scream_. 

“Alright, thank you! We’ll let you know if we notice anything!” Maria said as she finally shut the door and turned back around. She gasped in delight as Alex revealed where his fingers were. “Alex Manes, you’re _wicked_.” 

“I know, I know,” Alex said, withdrawing his fingers, to a pointed sob from Michael, who had rolled fully face-down on the bed, beyond wrung out. 

Maria went back to unbuckling the handcuffs while Alex helped Michael to stretch out again. They rubbed his arms and legs vigorously, and kissed him as they checked in with him. 

“I’m okay, okay,” Michael gasped, limbs still twitching, breaths still hitching. “Yellow, though, yellow, please, I—I’m so tired, I can’t—can’t take—” 

“Yeah. Yeah, we’re done, Michael,” Maria said. “You’re done. You did so good. You’re so good.” 

Michael took another careful breath, and then sobbed just a little, like it felt good to let it out. Maria and Alex wrapped their arms around him. 

“So good. Love you so much,” Alex said. Even he could tell through the handprint that the tears were from exhaustion and relief and too many sensations, none of them bad. “It’s okay, cry if you need to.” 

“Say it again,” Michael begged, eyes still closed, tears still falling. 

“What? I love you?” Alex asked, though he knew that wasn’t quite right.

“You did good,” Maria repeated, hitting on the right thing. 

“You _are_ good,” Alex agreed, holding him close enough that they could feel his body trembling in the aftershocks. 

Michael wanted to hold onto this forever, this feeling, the ache and the sweetness, the sensation of too much after never having enough. He didn’t exactly trust his limbs, but he had one arm around Alex and he pressed his face to Maria’s chest while they just kept touching him and telling him he was good, and he might have floated away if there wasn’t the lingering sensation of pain keeping him tethered to the earth.

“Let me try to get us cleaned up,” Maria said after a minute, or an hour, Michael wasn’t sure, but he nodded, happy to agree to anything. 

Michael had stopped crying by then, so that was good, and he felt so good and so tired. He bitched a little about being cold when Maria got up, but Alex only rolled him over in his arms and smothered him until Michael laughed, a helpless giggle at nothing. 

“Oh, fuck,” he said. “I think I’m fucked up.”

“I should hope so,” Alex told him. “We worked hard to fuck you up.” 

Michael giggled again, infectiously, and Alex laughed, too, and kissed his cheek. “It’s okay, though. We’re not letting you go. You get to be fucked up here with us.” 

Michael closed his eyes again, humming softly. “Okay. Good.”

When Maria returned it was with a pair of warm, wet washcloths that they got to work cleaning Michael and themselves up with before Maria took the tarp away and dumped it in the bath to clean in the morning, along with all the toys. That could be Michael's job.

This time, she returned to Michael and Alex laughing about Alex trying to literally swaddle Michael in one of the sheets, wrapping him up so he couldn’t move his arms. 

“Stop, Alex, I can’t move _anyway_ ,” Michael whined, but he was giggling. “You broke me. Turn me off and on again.” 

“Wasn’t that what we just did?” Alex replied, biting Michael’s nose in retaliation. It had been literal decades since Alex had ever looked so carefree and giggly, and Maria had to touch her heart to stop it aching.

Whatever Michael thought they were giving him, he was giving them back tenfold.

“What are you nerds doing?” Maria demanded, crawling into bed with them. She held up a bottle of water with a straw in it for Michael to drink, and gave Alex his own water bottle. 

“He threatened to get us back in the middle of the night,” Alex laughed. “I don’t know how, or why, I think he’s high. So I figured I’d make sure he’s not a danger to us or himself.” 

With that, Michael gave up, and Alex wrestled the sheet around him twice more and tucked it in on itself, laughing triumphantly.

Michael squirmed, pretending to be annoyed even though he was obviously preening. He could probably get out of this impromptu mummification if he really tried, even without the use of his powers, but it felt _good_. All of it felt so good and secure and cozy, and he didn’t want to move anyway. He sighed and laid still in resignation.

“Just fucking cuddle me, already,” he demanded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to Haloud for the beta read!


	11. Chapter 11

To everyone’s surprise, most of all Michael’s, he woke to his head aching. 

It was nothing a little acetone and water wouldn’t fix, but it was unexpected, and kind of put a damper on the lie-in he could have had. He’d had grand plans of going down on both of them before breakfast, or even before they were awake, if he managed it, but as it was he stayed in bed with one arm sticking out of his blanket cocoon and sipped acetone while Alex called room service for breakfast and Maria started packing. 

“This is definitely withdrawal,” Alex said for the third time. “It’s the first time you’ve gone over twenty-four hours without a drink since you were like, 18. See? This is good for you!” 

“It does not  _ feel  _ good for me. Look, I’m still tangled in this damn sheet. Maybe you  _ squeezed _ me too tight and that gave me a headache, huh?” Michael complained, kicking futilely. 

“I...don’t think that’s it,” Alex said, bemused. He felt great this morning. 

“Maybe we fucked him too hard,” Maria suggested brightly, too brightly for how Michael’s head hurt. “Maybe it’s a crying headache.”

“I do not have a headache from crying,” Michael pouted. “Or a headache from sex!” 

But he did feel better after water and some food and half a bottle of acetone, so maybe they were both right. Maybe laying off the booze more often wasn’t a horrible idea, either.

“Do we want to try getting into the bath and just checking out late or do you want to see anything else in town?” Alex suggested as they finished up their breakfast. “We don’t have to check out until 3.” Being a disabled vet had to have some perks. 

“Oh, I forgot about the jacuzzi!” Maria moaned. “Come on, might make Michael feel better.” 

“You know, we could go to the public pool and fool around in a hot tub any time if you guys wanna get me wet so bad,” Michael said, not really wanting to get out of bed, but Maria was already in the bathroom running water. “Or Isobel can get us into the country club.” 

“I think we just might fit,” Maria said, returning. “If we get Alex in first, Michael on top of you, and I sit across from you.” 

“How do you feel about carrying 160 pounds of skinny alien?” Alex asked. 

“Hey,” Michael complained. “First of all, I can walk. Second of all, I’m like 180!” 

“Well, let’s see,” Maria said, and freaked the hell out of both of them by hauling Michael off the bed and holding him in front of her in a bridal carry. She groaned under the weight but she did hold him, at least for a few seconds before putting him back down, laughing. “Yep, closer to 180 for sure.” 

“Holy shit, Maria!” Alex laughed. He’d seen women her size lift more, of course, but that was with, like, military training. “When do you even have time to work out?”

“Remind me not to piss you off,” Michael laughed. 

“You like knowing I could break you in half,” Maria hummed, leaning over him. 

Michael, still half tangled in his sheet, turned his head up for a kiss. “Yes, yes, I do.” 

“Alex, you need any help getting into the bath?” Maria asked, still staring down at Michael like she wanted to break him in half right now. 

“Please let me to manage the indignity on my own. I’ll need you to help me out of it, though, probably,” Alex said, only slightly annoyed because he had already showered and dressed, but perfectly glad to take off his shirt where they could still see him. 

Both Michael and Maria looked away from each other to stare appreciatively. 

“It’s that swimmer’s body,” Michael whispered. 

“I know, right?” Maria giggled. “Seriously, do you need me to carry you?” 

“Please, no. It turns me on too much knowing how strong you are, and I can’t handle any more of that. Just help me out of this blanket.”

“Did you like it? Sleeping restricted like that?” Maria asked, untucking the sheet. “It seemed like you did, but I can talk to Alex if—” 

Michael kissed her again, kicking himself free. “Hmm, comfy sleeping bondage, let’s see. I think I’m gonna have to test it some more.”

“Ooh!” Maria laughed. 

“Thought to be fair I’m not sure I slept  _ well  _ so much as I was fucking unconscious last night.” He grinned. 

Alex called from the bathroom, “Okay, I’m in! And I’m turning off the water before we get a lesson in volume displacement.”

Michael actually groaned again as he sat up, feeling bruises and welts all over his body. His ass felt raw, and his dick felt pinched, and not at all like he’d healed himself with his powers last night. Which was actually kind of nice. 

“You okay, baby?” Maria asked, steadying him as he limped into the bathroom.

Alex sucked in a breath, too, when he saw the welts and fingernail marks all over his chest and legs. “Looks like we might have been a little too rough last night. Was it—”

“No,  _ no _ . It was good. I’m good. Feels good, seriously, except for this headache, which is probably an anti-hangover or whatever you call it.”

“Withdrawal?” Alex grinned. He loved being right. 

Michael sat on the edge of the tub, and took Maria’s hand and curled her fingers over a bruise on his kidneys. He showed Alex a mark from his fingernails in the meat of his bicep. “I  _ like  _ knowing exactly where your hands have been. If anything my powers are getting more precise. I don’t  _ want _ to heal myself from you, just because it stings a little. I like the sting. I want it to be there.” 

Maria hummed and kissed him, and Alex gave him a gentle tug. “Then get in here and let me touch every place you’re sore.” 

“Maybe it’ll get rid of this stupid headache,” Micheal chuckled, easing himself down in between Alex’s legs, even though it kind of hurt to sit on his ass. 

“You definitely drink too much,” Maria said, taking off her pajamas and throwing them in the dirty laundry pile, and waltzing around naked to bring the bottle of acetone and water. “Finish those before you get out of the bath.” 

“Yes, ma’am,” Michael agreed, as Alex shifted him so he was sitting more on his lap. 

“You guys good? This is gonna be tight,” Maria giggled as she stepped into the tub. This was going to be hilarious, sharing a bathtub with two grown ass men. Living the dream, sure, but still hilarious. 

“Do not talk to me about  _ tight  _ when I am grounded like this,” Michael whined. 

“Then get your big toe out of my butthole, Guerin!” Maria laughed. “Or is that Alex?” 

“Maybe that’s my dick,” Alex said, from all the way on the other side of the bath, causing Michael and Maria to snort in laughter. 

“He does have a really huge schlong, Maria, it’s not an exaggeration,” Michael said, daring to sound smug about that. 

“ _ Schlong _ ?!” 

When they finally settled down and got over giggling stupidly about the awkwardness of being naked together and not actively having a threesome, just lounging in the warm water with Michael on top of them, Maria said, “We should have done this the first night here.” 

“Every night,” Michael agreed. He was draped across their legs awkwardly but managed to make it look comfortable. Like a cat. “Thanks, you guys. For the whole trip, but I mean, everything. I like the rules. If it means more fancy hotel room trips, I even like your rules.” 

“Yes! Living my Sugar Mama dreams!” Maria said, pumping her fist. “Now the question is, who gets to take him home first?” 

“Oh, he’s all tired, he’s gonna be  _ worthless  _ today, so you can have him,” Alex said, eyes sparkling with mischief as Michael opened his eyes and swiveled around, sloshing water everywhere. 

“Rude!” 

“Mm, you love it, though,” Alex told him. 

“‘Tired’ just sounds like ‘already broke in’ to me!” Maria cackled. “You’re mine tonight, pony boy.” 

“You are both  _ horrible _ ,” Michael laughed, but he was blushing. 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, I was moving!! 
> 
> Heed the new tags as things get explodey again lol.

As it was, they spent most of the day in Albuquerque, because Maria wanted to shop at a bunch of stores they didn’t have in Roswell, and Alex wanted to take the scenic route, and by the time they sat down to a green chile cheeseburger at the world famous Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio, NM, it was already nearly dark, which was potentially quite unfair to Maria. 

“You can’t add _another_ day,” Michael was saying. “My dick’s gonna shrivel up and drop off.”

Alex chuckled. “Pretty sure that’s not going to happen. But I agree Maria just missed her chance. Or, you know, since she doesn’t get tired until 2am, if we’re home by 10 or 11, she can still put you to work.” 

“Now there’s an idea,” Maria agreed. “And he makes such good breakfast, too, mm.” 

“Some of us have jobs that want us to get there at a decent hour, DeLuca,” Michael complained. 

Alex _really_ laughed. “Yeah, and they are not yours.” 

“Be that as it may!” Michael protested loudly, and laughed, stealing a fry off of Maria’s plate. “There’s nothing I’d rather lose sleep over than keeping my woman happy,” he purred, leaning in to beg a kiss from her. 

Maria kissed him, grinning. “You’re such a smoothie, Guerin, when you want to be.” 

Lulled into a false sense of security by the whole happy weekend and liberal Albuquerque, Michael felt it safe enough to lean in to kiss Alex, too, even here. Alex initially pulled back, instinctively afraid of public displays of affection, but they weren’t that far from the big city, this was a tourist town, their table was pretty dark and out of the way, and Alex owed it to his partners to ease up occasionally. As sleepy as Roswell could be, probably no one failed to notice their relationship or the nature of it. At the very least the clerks at Walgreens knew how many condoms and how much lube they bought on the regular. So he kissed Michael back, hauling him in to plant one on him after he started to pull back, embarrassed. 

“Sorry.” Alex smiled. 

“No, I’m sorry. I know the PDA thing—”

“I’m trying to get over that. My dad’s not here, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed—”

“You’re also just shy anyway, Alex,” Maria teased him, gently. “We’re not offended.”

“Speak for yourself,” Michael chuckled. “I’m so offended. Kiss me again.” 

Reflecting back on how Michael and Alex had kissed in high school, as young adults, Michael liked the system better now. When he was young, all he was worried about was now, now, now: wanting Alex, needing Alex, afraid that Alex would leave or be taken from him at any moment. Feeling like he was getting away with murder when they kissed. So he had grasped, pulled, dug into him with his teeth and nails. And look how well that had worked out. 

But slowly, now, Michael had unlearned that. He decided he loved just letting himself be kissed, letting Alex grab his neck or Maria grab his hair (even when his hands weren’t tied). His hold on them could be exploratory, his kisses gentle. He was always hungry for them, but not starving and expecting his food to be taken away. And, like now, he could just lean in and let it happen to him, knowing he was going to be taken care of and that he was loved and safe and being casually groped in public at a burger joint—

“Mmf,” he said, when Alex released him, and, oh, that was _Maria’s_ hand just softly petting him between his legs. 

“I just like feeling that it’s there,” she hummed, running her fingers mostly over the steel fittings through his jeans.

Michael had to sass back, “Despite all my rage, I’m still just a dick in a—”

“Oh my _God_ ,” Alex laughed. “Please don’t.” 

Maria chuckled and slid her hand to Michael’s thigh instead, making him moan and chase the sensation. 

“Okay, you two. Let’s get you home. I’ll even drive if you keep the fooling around down to a minimum.” 

“Hear that, baby? More practice staying quiet.” 

“Maria, I’m _not_ having sex to Fall Out Boy,” Michael said. 

“It’s Panic! At the Disco, man, I told you,” Alex grumbled. “And just for that, you’re getting the _Frozen II_ song.” 

“Woo!” Maria cheered. 

They paid, and left the restaurant still giggling. Michael and Maria sat in the back while Alex blasted his emo punk rock crap, which he kept turning up louder the more Michael complained about it. 

This meant, of course, that they could be as loud as they wanted in the back seat, and they took full advantage, Maria riding Michael’s fingers as they made out to the tune of “Girls/Girls/Boys” on repeat. Alex was singing along and trying not to watch them too closely in the rearview mirror when a car came out of nowhere swerving straight for them. 

Alex reacted before he knew he was reacting, turning the wheel sharp enough to avoid the other car, but also hard enough to _flip_ his car.

…

Maybe panic gave aliens some kind of superspeed, or maybe the way everything slowed down to laser-sharp clarity even though Michael had been utterly focused on making his girlfriend come while she bit hickeys into his neck just a split-second ago happened to everybody. Michael realized Maria wasn’t wearing a seatbelt just as Alex swerved, and he was able to grab her before she went through a window. 

The car flipped once, hitting three corners of the car, before Michael realized they were tumbling down a hill and were going to keep flipping until the car hit a boulder and exploded or they were rattled to death inside. As the car started a second flip he really hoped the driver that swerved into their lane was drunk and not an alien hunting paramilitary psycho, because he was going to give anyone watching a show. 

He caught the car with his telekinetic powers, grunting with the force of it, and holding Maria in her seat. It was only when they slowed down and stopped in mid-air that he realized both Maria and Alex were screaming, and that he was, too. 

“Fuck, oh, fuck, fucking shit!” Alex said, as Maria shrieked “Oh my God, oh my God!” while she clung to him in a deathgrip. 

“ _Michael_?” they both demanded at once. 

“Yeah, I—yeah. Hang on, I’ve got—got it—” Michael grunted, holding the car in mid-air for a few terrifying seconds before he floated the SUV, with them in it, back up the hill and set it down on the narrow shoulder of the highway. He set them down a little heavily and sucked in a breath, moving away from Maria in case he barfed. 

There was silence in the car. They heard tires screech to a halt somewhere behind them. The drunk driver—or alien hunter—or another witness? 

“Everyone okay?” Maria asked, since Alex was still breathing harshly through his nose. The car was still running, weirdly, giving new meaning to the lyrics _don't threaten me with a good time_.

"No! What the fuck, that idiot drove right out in front of me!" Alex fumed belatedly, already unbuckling his seatbelt and fumbling with the door. "Call Sheriff Valenti," he demanded, and dropped outside of the car to throw up. 

“Shit! Alex!” Maria and Michael shouted, stumbling out of the car to check on him, neither of them grabbing their phones. Michael could bypass all that. 

_Isobel_ , he said in his mind, concentrating hard. It was always easier for him to contact Isobel than Max, and he was pretty shaken, which made it easier. _Isobel, we were just in a wreck. Send Max down here, we’re somewhere on Highway 380._

Isobel answered him immediately. _Is everyone okay? Should I call Kyle?_

Michael was fine, he was pretty sure, but he glanced at his partners: Maria was kneeling by Alex with a bottle of water, rubbing his back, trying to get anything useful out of him. 

“Alex, are you hurt?” 

“God damn—fucking—shit,” Alex swore, sounding hurt, and sounding...scared. Alex got angry when he got scared, these days, worlds away from his dad discovering them in his toolshed in high school. 

_Don’t pretend he’s not sleeping right next to you. But yes_ , Michael replied. If nothing else, Alex might actually talk to Valenti if he was this desperately fucked up. 

Michael crossed the highway, blowing out the other driver’s tires with his brain just in case they tried to run. But they—he, as it turned out, some redneck—skidded to a stop and hit his face on his steering wheel, so he was already passed out. Michael checked for a pulse but didn’t bother with much else, and opened up his phone to call Max. 

“Deputy Evans.” 

“Max, it’s me.” 

“Michael! Is this a pay phone or did you get a new phone? I’m on my way, are you guys okay?” 

“New phone, and I think so. Drunk driver, passed out. No collisions, just swerving. I may have, ah, _cheated,_ so don’t look too close at the skid marks for your report, please. I figured you’d need an official call and not a sibling mind meld.” 

“Thanks,” Max said on the other line. “I’ll put the sirens on and be there in twenty minutes.” 

“Thanks,” Michael said, and hung up to the sound of Liz in the background saying, _Alex and Maria? I’m coming with you!_

He jogged back to Maria and Alex. 

Alex was visibly shaking but trying to calm himself down, leaning against the wheel well. He snapped when he spoke: “Guerin, are you okay?” 

“Yeah, are you?” Michael asked, managing not to take offense at Alex’s sharp tone, and he crouched down next to him, worried. “Max and Kyle are on their way. And I think Liz and Isobel, probably.” 

“Great, that’s all I need, an audience,” Alex grimaced. 

“You’ve got twenty minutes to pull it together,” Michael replied. “Are you hurt?” 

“I’m pissed off!” Alex shouted. “I should have been paying better attention instead of being distracted by—”

“That idiot swerved out in front of you,” Michael said. 

“Oh, you weren’t paying attention, either,” Alex huffed. 

“He was paying enough attention to save our asses,” Maria told Alex firmly. “You both were. Breathe, Manes.” 

Alex took a few harsh, glaring breaths. Michael laid a hand over Alex’s heart, and Maria put her hand on top of his. She could feel it pounding even through Michael’s fingers. 

“I ever tell you how I lost the leg?” Alex said after a minute. 

Michael swallowed. “Let me guess, you were driving?” 

Alex nodded. “Yeah. Swerved to avoid an IED. Did not swerve hard enough or soon enough. And—I’m sorry. Here I had a _second chance_ and—”

“And we’re all fine,” Maria told Alex firmly. 

Michael started patting Alex down, since he wasn’t exactly sure about that. He was wet and sticky, probably from his open coke spilling all over him, since it didn’t smell like blood. 

“I’m fine, I swear, just shaken up.”

“I’ll believe you when Kyle okays you,” Michael said. 

Alex nodded. Maybe he would, too. “Thanks,” Alex said after a minute. “Thanks for saving our fucking lives when I fucking couldn’t—”

“Hey, Alex,” Michael said, shaking him out of his anger: “I saved us for one very simple reason.” 

Maria, sensing a punchline, and hoping it would be good enough to calm Alex down, fed him the line. “Oh, why’s that?” 

“Because you’re supposed to wear clean underwear in case you get into an accident,” Michael said. “...And I’m not wearing any underwear.” 

“Jesus Christ,” Alex said, but he laughed.


	13. Chapter 13

They were only forty miles outside of Roswell, but it took them three hours to get home. 

Max wrote a report and arrested the drunk driver (Michael’s favorite line from the report was “vehicle was moved to a safe location after collision”) while Kyle, Liz, and Isobel fussed over the three of them. Team Human ripped Alex and Maria physically away from Michael, so he let Isobel mother him, which mostly meant she watched him drink a bottle of acetone. 

“Please, Iz, I’m fine,” Michael said. 

“You stopped a careening SUV with your brain and levitated it up a hill and you’re fine?” 

Michael shrugged. “Adrenaline.” Then he grinned. “Or a steady diet of very good sex.” 

“Gross. Glad you’re having it. Do not want to hear about it. Especially  _ do not _ want to hear about how it charges your powers.” 

“I’m just saying, we should all be taking notes, for science.” Michael chuckled. “And you and Valenti, that’s really going somewhere? You know he’s, like, my sworn enemy, right?” 

Isobel laughed. “What do you think Maria and I are?” 

“That’s fair.” Michael stood up, letting Isobel help him. “I’m gonna take a look at the car, see if it’s totaled.” 

“I can help, as long as I won’t get dirty.” 

Michael looked at her, and carefully didn’t laugh, because that was just such an Isobel thing to say. “Right...” 

But three hours later they were home, at nearly 1:00AM. Even Maria was tired, which was why she didn’t mind that Kyle and Isobel took them home. Alex’s car had to be towed because the airbags deployed, but Michael made Alex get it towed to Sanders’ so he could take a look at it before insurance just totaled it outright. It looked like hell, but it still ran, after all. 

Maria asked Alex point-blank whether he wanted to be at his home and let her stay there, too, or wouldn’t mind coming to her place, because she did not want him to be alone and didn’t want to be alone herself. Michael remained unconsulted, but whether this was in line with their Agreement (according to which Michael wasn’t really permitted to go home alone anyway) or she was just worried about Alex wasn’t clear. 

“You have too many stairs,” Alex said, and, hands still vaguely shaking, he directed Isobel to his cabin.

When they arrived, Michael brought the bags in while Maria walked Alex inside. “Thanks, Iz. Thanks, Valenti.” 

Kyle even shook his hand and Isobel gave him a hug. “Let me know who needs rides where tomorrow. Any time.”

Michael actually hugged her for real that time. Maybe this whole exposure therapy for accepting gifts was working. 

Inside, Michael felt like he was intruding on something just between Alex and Maria, because he walked in on them standing in the kitchen just holding each other, Alex looking and breathing like he really needed to have a good cry but was absolutely refusing to, while Maria cried enough for both of them. 

Unsure what to say, or even do, really, Michael just stepped in and wrapped his arms around both of them, like he was trying to protect them even from this. They made room for him automatically, each letting go of the other with one arm and wrapping it around him. “I’m never going to let anything happen to either of you,” he whispered. 

“Oh, Michael,” Maria said, pressing her damp face into his shirt and letting out a few jagged sobs before she calmed. Alex was just pressing his face to Michael’s neck like he could block out the world here, like breathing in the bourbon-rain smell of him soothed him. 

“Thank you,” Maria said, when she got a hold of herself enough to speak. “Thank you for saving us.” 

“I’m sorry,” Alex finally said. “I should have—”

“Alex, stop it,” Maria said. “It wasn’t your fault.” 

“I have better reflexes than that, I’m smarter than that—” 

“Alex,” Maria and Michael said at the same time, the same sharp tone. They all still had the lingering remnants of the handprint, and they both felt it at the same time: Alex’s grip already on the edge of crumbling, and behind it, a side of Alex they didn’t get to see often, or maybe at all—a part of him that wanted to be comforted and loved and taken care of. A part of him that wanted him to let go even though being in control was so important to who he was. 

“Alex, let us. Let me,” Michael said, gently, afraid of spooking this side of Alex and frightening him back behind his walls. 

“Let us take care of you,” Maria said. She sniffled, already feeling better because  _ she _ knew how to cry, to let it all out, damn it. These idiots should try it sometime. Especially Alex. 

“What can I do for you? What can I be for you?” Michael asked, breathing hot on Alex’s neck the way he knew Alex liked, the way he knew made Alex melt for him. 

And sure enough Alex gave a little shiver and smiled. “I’m fine, you guys. Really. Just tired.” 

“You heard the man, he needs a drink,” Maria said playfully, and then paused: “Unless you took meds or something….”

“No, no. Took those this morning. Maybe they’re wearing off and that’s why I…” Alex shook himself, but seemed resigned. “Yeah, I’d like a whiskey, actually.” 

“I’ll get it,” Maria offered, but Alex grabbed her wrist and yanked her back.

“Oh, no. I don’t need  _ you _ pouring me a drink on an empty stomach, Ms. DeLuca. I need a stingy pourer,” Alex said, fixing a genuinely sinful look on Michael. “A single bourbon, please, Guerin. And, I dunno, some toast?” 

“Yes, sir.” Michael kissed him as he moved away. 

Behind him, Alex complained, “Ugh, I shouldn’t be hungry. I hate myself for barfing up a world famous green chile cheeseburger.”

Michael put two slices of toast in the toaster and went to Alex’s drink cabinet. Bullet bourbon sounded about right for the occasion, and Michael poured him a finger into a wide glass, and then poured a second for Maria. He poured himself a bottle of water from the tap, because the water tasted better out here at Alex’s house, and because a bottle he could tuck under his arm. He spread butter on the toast and cut it into triangles and followed them into Alex’s room. 

Maria had opened up her bag and was using the bathroom when Michael returned. Alex was sprawled out in an easy chair, having gotten as far as getting one shoe off but no further. 

“Before you have a cow, the second one’s for DeLuca,” Michael said, setting the two glasses down on top of a book that rested on the table at his elbow: a Tony Hillerman, with the plasticy library cover. 

“Michael, I really don’t care about that tonight.” 

“Okay, but I do,” Michael found himself saying. He knelt between Alex’s legs and leaned in to kiss him, not a soft, begging kiss but a hard, demanding one. Alex tasted like mint, having brushed his teeth, too, apparently. “Drink the bourbon, let me taste it.” 

The moment Alex picked up the bourbon, Michael was undoing Alex’s jeans, and if Alex’s hips and cock stirred, all Michael did was slide his jeans down his legs and start removing his prosthetic. Alex sat back and drank and nibbled some of the toast, soaking in the quiet and comfort of it. Michael checked for bruises or injuries Kyle might have missed, but only found one abrasion on his knee from hitting the console, and later he’d find one on his collarbone from the seatbelt. 

“Come here,” Alex said after a minute, and took a last sip of the bourbon, letting it sit on his tongue while Michael kissed him. Michael’s hand slid up around the back of Alex’s neck, ostensibly to check for bruising or swelling or tenderness, but when he found none he pulled him deeper, like he could get drunk off his kisses. 

The touch on Michael’s shoulders startled him into drawing back, and then Maria was leaning over him to kiss Alex herself. Alex remembered how much he liked kissing Maria when he sat back, totally boneless and relaxed. He wasn’t the least bit sleepy: none of them were. 

“Let me call the shots tonight, huh, Alex?” Maria asked, resting her hands on Michael’s shoulders. “I want to make you feel good—through Guerin. Let him take care of you  _ just _ how I tell him to. How about it, Michael?” 

Michael grinned and looked up at her, eyes shining. “Y-yeah? Yeah, that sounds great. I’m all yours.” 

Alex laughed breathily. “Okay, I want to see this.” 

After all, Michael had had years to get to know him and his body, and sure, he liked  _ kissing  _ Maria, and sure she was psychic, but would she really take care of him better than Michael could?

“Can you carry him to the bed, then?” Maria asked, squeezing Michael’s shoulders and stepping back. 

“Michael, I can walk,” Alex protested, as Michael already began pulling him up against his chest and gripping under his thighs. 

“I’m afraid you’ll have to take that one up with management, sir,” Michael said, putting Alex’s arms around his neck and lifting him when Alex was laughing too much to protest. 

“Put him in the middle of the bed,” Maria instructed, and Michael obliged. 

“You know you’re about a quarter lighter than I’d expect you to be.” 

“Ha,” Alex said, surprised when Michael took advantage of his parted lips and leaned in to kiss him. 

“Ah ah,” Maria said, grabbing Michael’s hair. “You do exactly what I tell you, when I tell you, baby. Be good.” 

Michael whined a little, but nodded, flashing Alex an apologetic look. 

Alex, who had stopped trembling for now, glanced up at Maria. “Okay, but I’m allowed to kiss him whenever I want, right?”

“Oh, of course,” Maria hummed. 

Michael shivered, and Alex chuckled lowly, both of them already turned on by Michael’s denial. 

“Why don’t you undress him, baby?” Maria asked, whispering in Michael’s ear. “And you’re supposed to be naked in bed, too, sweetheart.” 

“Right, sorry,” Michael said, throwing off his own clothes before he crawled back across the bed to Alex, lust already feeling like it was going to burn a hole through his belly since it couldn’t escape out his cock. 

Alex drew back, a little shy or confused, perhaps just not sure how to react when he wasn’t the pursuer but was being pursued. Michael hovered over him, licking his lips, desperate, but not pushing, not taking. Not until—

“Kiss him, Michael,” Maria said, and Michael kissed him like he was a starving man and Alex was food. He still tasted like bourbon to Michael, and Michael tasted like petrichor to Alex, and they both moaned softly, even as Michael pushed Alex down into the pile of pillows.

Alex realized his heart was pounding from this only when Michael slid a hand under his shirt and laid his palm over his chest. He wasn’t in control, and he was—yeah, he was back to trembling—but he wasn’t  _ scared _ . In fact this felt good, just different. He knew he was a control freak and this definitely wasn’t his first time on his back during sex but—but he just knew he felt so vulnerable right now that maybe it was the first time he was really letting someone else take control. And not even Michael, but  _ Maria _ ! 

“Easy, I’m not gonna hurt you,” Michael said, like he read Alex’s mind and—oh, right. The handprint. God, he was  _ naked  _ here and he wasn’t even naked yet, and it was  _ mortifying _ . 

“I-I know,” Alex said, but still shivered when Michael reached down to hook one finger under his boxer-briefs. “I’m not worried about that.” 

“What are you worried about, then?” Maria asked, crawling into bed beside him. She was wearing a full set of silky pajamas, long sleeves and pants, and oh, God, now Alex wanted to touch her, and everything was so confusing—

“Relax, Al,” Maria purred. “Michael, help me sit him up.” 

Alex let himself be lifted, and though Maria gave no further instructions, they worked as one, lifting his shirt off over his head while Maria slid into the pillow pile behind him, and when Alex laid back, it was against Maria’s chest, with her arms around him. 

“O-oh God-d,” Alex gasped. 

“It’s okay,” Maria said, and was running her hands through his hair, which, God damn it,  _ did _ make him feel better, more relaxed. “You’re okay.” 

“Y-yeah,” Alex agreed, but he was still shivering, like a little baby, like this was his first time, like he was going to cry. Was he scared of this or was he just scared of being loved? “I know. I’m sorry.” 

“Not topping from the bottom and makes you crazy,” Michael grinned, had the audacity to  _ tease _ him. Alex didn’t even have the energy to be indignant about that. 

“You’re not being a very good boy, Michael,” Maria scolded, resting her head on Alex’s shoulder so she could watch. “Stop teasing and get his underwear off. Kiss his legs as you go.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Michael said, hooking his fingers under the waistband and pulling. 

Extrapolating on these orders, Michael started by kissing the tip of his cock as it sprang free, already hard, yeah, he was hard, still shaking like a leaf but at least his dick knew what he wanted. But Maria let this embellishment slide, and Alex relaxed as Michael’s fingertips and kisses traveled down his legs, and when he closed his eyes he really did almost start crying because he thought he could feel phantom kisses tracing down his missing shin, his missing foot. 

(What was left of his leg had been incinerated in an Iraqi hospital, and occasionally, rarely, but more often when he got phantom sensations from severed nerve endings, he wished he had asked to keep the ashes. He could have claimed it for religious reasons, made Uncle Sam pay the bill for a Diné tradition. An elder had asked him about it when he went to visit his mom after, still in a wheelchair. Angry at the world, Alex had snapped that he didn’t believe in that shit. He hadn’t been back since. But every once in a while, he could feel his leg like it was still out there, scattered in a medical waste landfill on another continent, and if there was an afterlife that believed in  _ him _ , he knew he was going into it three-quarters of a man.)

“Stop,” Alex begged, choking with emotion, and Michael did, peering up at him from between his legs. 

“Color?” Maria asked. 

“Yellow. Just—stay above the knees, please.” Alex blinked, and wiped an errant tear away savagely. 

“Okay. You heard him, Michael, baby. Above the knees.” Maria slid her hands down Alex’s arms, linking their fingers together, and hugging him with his own arms and hers. “Why don’t you prop his hips up and rim him until he feels better?” 

Alex made a strangled noise, a sound caught between a laugh, a sob, and a moan. “Might take a while.” 

“Lucky me,” Michael said, shoving a pillow up under Alex’s hips until he did feel cradled, like he was hanging in a hammock between the two rocks in his life, and Maria was holding him and whispering just behind his ear, telling Michael where to hold him and touch him and all Alex could do was lie back and feel. 

And he was feeling a  _ lot _ right now. 

“That’s good, Michael,” Maria whispered eventually, dropping the lube down beside him. “You’re both doing so good for me. Michael, I want you to finger him open with your right hand and touch his cock with your left.”

She kissed Alex’s cheek. “And you, I want you to think about whether you want him to ride you or fuck you.” 

“Mm,” Alex said. 

Michael looked up sharply at that. Not so much at the idea of fucking Alex (Alex seemed to like being penetrated just fine, and they did it often enough—well, more often before the BDSM thing got really intense—but it was control that Alex didn’t give up that easily, and here he was), but rather at knowing that he was still Grounded, his dick locked for six more days. 

“But I—umm,” Michael said, not sure how to let them know that he was really on board with his dick being unlocked and fucking Alex, but also he really liked being denied by them, so it was an utter conundrum. 

“Shh, Michael,” Maria said. “You don’t get a say, my pretty little pet.” (Oh, fuck, yes that was good, and Michael groaned as he felt his cock strain to get hard in the cage, his balls were probably purple by now and they were just getting started.) “Work those magic fingers, baby.” 

With Michael touching him, Alex’s mind turned to soup and became one huge aching desire. He started slow, with one finger inside him, because he was always, always tense, and Michael knew just how to relieve that tension. Alex splayed his legs open as Maria helped Michael slick up his other hand to finally, finally touch his dick, working him in long, slow strokes that were going to make him go blind if he kept watching. And all the while that wet mouth hung open, lips slack and eyes hooded with desire as he touched him just how Maria directed him to. 

She was...good. 

Alex couldn’t forget Maria was there—it was one thing to co-dom their boyfriend with her, he decided, but letting her control sex between them through her controlling Michael was insanely hot. They’d been naked together before, even got off together, now, but being vulnerable for her like this was something entirely new that he kind of loved. She made him feel safe, and she was clearly driving Guerin crazy with the way he squirmed, and what should be the mortifying experience of getting a boner in front of her and crying through it wasn’t even fazing Alex at this point. 

“I want him to fuck me,” Alex said. “But I don’t want him to come unless you let him. T-technically he’s yours for tonight, right?” 

“Fuck,” Michael gasped, and now it was his turn to shudder helplessly. Yeah, he liked that. He really liked it. 

“Okay, Michael, left hand teasing his nipples instead now,” Maria instructed. “How many fingers do you have in him?” 

“Just two, ma’am.” 

“Start massaging his prostate,” she said, pulling Alex’s hands down to his sides and holding him there. 

Alex watched Michael’s long arms and clever fingers slide up his chest to toy with his nipples like it was happening to someone else’s body, but Michael knew he didn’t have particularly sensitive nipples and went straight for the rough stuff, just how he liked, making him grunt and buck his hips up into nothing. Michael’s fingers were already pressing on his prostate, and it felt good, but the sting on his nipples felt better. 

“I—I’m ready for three,” Alex said. 

“Permission to give him three fingers?” Michael asked, head still spinning at the thought that he might get his dick unlocked but might not actually get to come, and determined to be very good to increase his chances. 

“Permission granted,” Maria said, and she was really going to town playing with Alex’s hair, which was up and fluffy and he had this blissed out look on his face. The shaking was down to a minimum, and Michael’s three fingers felt good inside him, and he was almost relaxed enough for it to feel good on his prostate. He took a deep breath, leaning his head back with a sigh, and  _ there— _

His hips rocked up and he sucked in a sharp breath, suddenly close. “There. Touch my—” 

“ _ Don’t _ do what he says, Michael,” Maria corrected. “Just keep working him open. You’re a good boy. And you’re a good boy, too, Alex, who’s just going to lie there and take it.” 

“Ugh,” Alex grumbled at being called a good boy, but Michael’s fingers felt too good to really complain, and Maria smelled nice holding him and her silk pajamas were so soft against his skin (this, this was how he liked women’s bodies, fully clothed in soft things that he just wanted to hug). “M-Maria, p-please.” 

“My God, you’ve never been edged a minute in your life and it shows, Manes,” Maria teased him, holding him even tighter as she finally instructed Michael to remove his fingers and get Alex propped up even more with pillows. 

Alex whined, which mostly just proved Maria’s point and made her laugh at him. She wrapped one arm around him and pulled out her necklace, and the key that hung on it. “Get a condom and come here.” 

This was to Michael, who was so turned on he almost didn’t care if she didn’t let him finish if he could just let his dick get hard to see if it still  _ could _ . He scrambled to obey, fetching a condom and clambering around Alex to kneel at Maria’s side. “I’ll be good,” he stammered. 

“I know you will. You’re both being very good,” Maria said, heady with power. “We’ll go slow, and you don’t touch it except to aim, got it?” 

Alex chuckled, a little high-sounding himself: “We should put that one on the list. You’re not allowed to touch it except to aim. Standing rule.” 

“You’re not the boss tonight, so shut up,” Michael told him with a smirk. 

Maria let his back-talk slide, which Michael appreciated, as she unlocked the little padlock and let the cage come apart in its three pieces and set the apparatus aside. She laughed again as Michael’s dick nearly slapped her in the face, and Michael whined and gripped the headboard while she tugged down on his balls to keep him from coming. 

She knew he was good when the cries turned to “Ow, ow, ow,” and she let him go slowly, and even more slowly, rolled a condom on him. 

“No shrinkage yet,” she mused. “You’re lucky.” 

“I think you mean Alex is lucky.” 

“I do  _ not  _ need your dick to be happy,” Alex told him, which was big talk from someone who was about to get all the dick he could stand. 

“You ready to get probed by an alien, private?” Michael asked, giddy with this whole thing, kicking Alex’s leg up over his shoulder and just cradling the other under the knee. 

“It’s— _ airman _ , you—God damn it, Maria, make him touch me, please!” Alex snipped, hips rocking up, begging with his body for something he was too proud to beg for in words. 

“Easy, easy,” Maria said, wrestling his arms back against his chest and ignoring his deathglare. “Michael, baby, I want you to line up and start pushing into him. Don’t touch his dick and don’t touch yours more than you have to, because you’re not coming til I say so. I want you to go slow, and when you bottom out, I want you to kiss his stupid gorgeous face until I tell you you can move.” 

Michael almost couldn’t breathe, this was so freaking hot, and he was so freaking hard. She took care of everything, every move, every touch, he didn’t even need to think, just obey, just feel. But even that was nothing compared to how Alex was coming apart for him, in ways Alex had never let himself come apart, possibly, for anyone. And fucking Alex was and would always be, as long as he was permitted to do so, apocalyptically hot. 

“Ah-ah-ahh!” Alex said, as Michael obeyed her, fucking him slowly. He was on fire, this was too much, he was not going to hold it together. “Michael, if you don’t touch my cock, you’re going to regret it the next time I—mmf!—mm—” 

“Good, you keep kissing him just like that, beautiful. Want you to fuck him nice and slow,” Maria purred. You could have burned down all of New Mexico with the barely contained heat between them, and soon Alex’s shaking transferred to Michael until they were both trembling, kissing softly, desperately. 

“Stop,” Maria said, then. “Stop everything.” 

“Damn it, Maria!” Alex shouted, and Michael actually sobbed, “Please, please let me—” 

“Michael, want you to give Alex a nice hickey on his neck where everyone can see—” 

“Ack, no, don’t—” 

“Alright then, Michael, pull out.” 

“Seriously?!”

“Fuck, okay, fine,” Alex said, voice breaking, and he bared his neck. For a brief moment, Michael  _ got it _ , got a taste of that heady power from someone else’s submission, got why Maria and Alex loved having him like this, but then Maria was pulling his hair to move him into position and he was back in the headspace he belonged in, raising a small hickey behind Alex’s ear and rocking against him to thank him, to try to give Alex’s dick just a little friction. 

“Uh-uh, no,” she said, raking her nails up Michael’s back. 

“Please, please, Maria, I’m begging you. Please make him make me come.” Alex giggled hysterically. “I can’t hack being a submissive bottom, you’ve made your point. Also my hip is cramping,  _ please _ .” 

“Alright, Michael, baby. You make him come, but you do  _ not  _ come.” 

“Fucking finally,” Michael swore, straightening back up to get a good angle and fucking Alex with abandon. The hand on Alex’s dick wasn’t even necessary at that point, he just rubbed the head of his cock with his thumb and Alex arched his back and came all over his chest, nearly sobbing with relief. Michael nearly went blind when Alex clenched around him, and he had to pull out quickly to keep himself from coming. Alex, oversensitive, gasped for air, sprawled out between them, his body flooding with that sweet sweet serotonin that nearly carried him off to sleep immediately. 

“Good boy. Good boys,” Maria purred. “Michael, why don’t you lick him clean?”

“Oh, oh God,” Alex groaned, sounding like he wanted to go again just at the thought, though the actual sight of Michael bending over him again, licking up the stripes of cum from his dick and stomach, nearly made him astral project out of his body. “Oh, shit,  _ Michael _ .” 

Maria rubbed his forehead, pushed his hair back, soothing him, as Michael finished. The room was quiet and peaceful. “What do you need, Alex?” 

“Water. And some goddamn peace and quiet,” he groaned, as Michael finally sat back, shivering. Alex had gone still, too exhausted to shiver. 

“Okay. Michael, go wait in the shower for me, okay, baby?” 

Michael whined, but was already getting up. Maybe he wasn’t going to get to come, but it felt too good to obey to not. 

“You gonna be okay while I take care of Guerin?” Maria asked, getting out from behind Alex and passing him the water. 

Alex gulped the water and then blinked up at her, “Leave the door open. Want to hear whatever diabolical thing you have planned for him.” 

“I mean we could do it on the bed. I’ll just need to hose him off afterward...” Maria said. 

Alex waved her away, smiling. He was still propped up on all the pillows he owned, but he was feeling no pain. “It’s okay. I’m just gonna—sleep.” 

Maria kissed him and draped a blanket over him, and grabbed the pieces of the cock cage. “Alright. Sleep. I love you.” 

“Love you, too.” 

Michael looked absolutely pathetic standing there, cock erect, condom in the trash, hands at his sides, in Alex’s handicap-accessible shower, which was all the punishment she needed to inflict on him, honestly, to make this night worth it. She left the door open as requested, knowing the shower would magnify the sound well for their audience. 

“So,” Maria said, pretending to be very strict, like she hadn’t already decided. “Do you think you deserve to come tonight? We’ll have to start the clock over.” 

“Th-that’s fine,” Michael stammered. “That’s good. Tonight was kind of a—a wash—what about you?” 

Oh, that was a good answer, Maria thought, but didn’t say, though her pleasure came across the handprint between them, because he dared to look hopeful. 

“That’s a good point. What  _ about _ me? You think you could fuck me?” Maria asked, calmly removing her pajama pants and hanging them on the towel rack. There was definitely a wet spot on them. 

“Without coming?” Michael wondered, uncertainly, struggling to keep his focus on her eyes instead of on her landing strip. He had to grip the base of his cock just to keep from going off.

“No, you’d be allowed,” Maria mused. “But there’s no way you’ll last long enough for me to get off, so I’m imagining what you’d look like eating your own spunk out of my pussy afterward.” 

“Oh, fuck, Maria, yes  _ please _ .” 

“Well, you better be quick, Alex is in there all by himself—oof!” Maria yelped, as Michael took permission as instruction and lifted her up against the  _ wall _ . 

She was plenty slick enough, though Michael was a gentleman and did check first before fucking into her. She liked it rough sometimes, especially after she’d been mentally foreplaying for thirty minutes with a writhing  _ bottoming _ Alex Manes in her arms,  _ holy shit _ . And Michael was holding her up with the use of his powers, she was pretty sure, or else his dick was just that hard. She got one foot on the sink for some leverage while the other curled around his hips, and yeah, yeah, this was almost enough to get her there, but  _ she  _ wasn’t in a rush, letting him chase his pleasure for the thirty seconds or whatever he needed to get off at this point. 

He climaxed with a sob, making the lights flicker as his hips slowed down and then stuttered to a stop. 

“Good, good boy,” Maria purred, raking her fingers through his hair. She was going to have to wash her hands just so they didn’t smell like boy hair product after this. “Now, uh, how about you put me down and—”

And Michael was already on his knees, which had to hurt already after spending a lot of the weekend on them, throwing her leg over his shoulder like he lived and breathed to eat her out. Maria hummed lowly and encouraged him, holding the back of his head, though he needed very little direction. Once he’d swallowed his own cum like a good boy she was basically already there, breathing sharply and whining and ready for him to start licking her clit, which he did, because he didn’t need a psychic link to read her body. 

“Shit, shit, fuck,” she swore, and grunted loudly as she finished all over his face, panting roughly. Michael kept licking her with broad swipes of his tongue, like he was asking for permission, and she almost wanted to go again but was suddenly so tired she was a little cross-eyed, and staggered back. “Okay. Good boy. So good, Michael. Let’s get you back in your cage so we can go to bed. You feeling okay? Need anything?” 

“A cold shower and a toothbrush,” Michael chuckled, face slick and eyes hooded. 

“Good,” Maria chuckled, slipping her pajama bottoms back on. “You lock yourself back up and come to bed.” 

“Alex in the middle?” 

“He’ll resent that in the morning, but yes.” 

“I already resent it now!” Alex called from the other room. “But I can’t move, so. You win.” 

“Great. All he needs is an emotionally vulnerable weekend, a life-threatening situation, a PTSD trigger, and a glass of bourbon to let us take care of  _ him  _ for once,” Maria said, wandering back into the bedroom and tucking herself in next to Alex. 

“Mm, leave me alone,” Alex fussed, eyes still closed even as he rolled against her. “I’m sleepy and complicated.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Finale Day! 
> 
> Thanks to all who read, kudoed and commented. Subscribe to the series! Michael's still "Grounded" for a week, after all... 😉😉


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